VaultSort 5.6.0

What's New

• Redact a Document. A new tool under Protect (and in All Tools) removes what you mark from a document instead of just covering it. Draw boxes over anything on a page, or search for a word, name or number and Redact every match to mark it on every page at once. VaultSort saves a redacted copy and never changes your original. Every copy of VaultSort includes 3 free redactions; unlimited redaction comes with a licence.
• Gone from the file, not just from view. A black box drawn in most PDF tools leaves the words underneath, where copy and paste can find them. VaultSort deletes the text under each box, the letter shapes in the embedded fonts, and the other places a PDF keeps copies: metadata, bookmarks, comments, form fields and attachments. A page it can't edit precisely is turned into an image of the original with the boxes painted in, rather than left half-edited.
• Checked before it's saved. Before writing the copy, VaultSort compares every changed page with the original, then a second, independent PDF reader searches the result for everything you marked. If anything survives, nothing is saved and you're told why. When it's done, a report lists what was removed and how it was checked.
• Maximum safety. For the most sensitive documents, turn every page into an image so nothing hidden in the file can survive. Where your computer can read the pages, their visible text is made searchable again from the redacted pages.
• Scanned PDFs and photos. Pages without a text layer, and pictures inside typed PDFs, are read with the text recognition built into macOS and Windows, so search and Redact every match work on scans too. Photos (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, GIF and BMP) are painted black where you marked them and saved from the pixels alone, so GPS location, camera details and thumbnails are left behind.
• Suggestions for what you'd miss. VaultSort can find card numbers, IBANs, account and policy numbers, Social Security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and passwords or API keys. Card numbers and IBANs are checked against their check digits, so random numbers aren't flagged. Names, addresses and organisations can be suggested by an on-device model, either Apple Intelligence or Ollama running on your computer. Nothing is marked until you tick it. (Cloud AI providers are never used for redaction suggestions.)
• Word documents (.docx). Marked text is replaced in the document itself, even when Word has split a word across different formatting. Tracked changes are accepted with deleted text dropped, and comments, document properties, the preview thumbnail, embedded objects and other hidden places are cleared. If anything VaultSort can't account for is left in the file, it refuses to save rather than guess. VaultSort can't read text inside pictures in Word documents, so turn on Remove pictures or check them yourself. (Password-protected, macro-enabled and old-style .doc files can't be redacted; save them as a regular .docx first.)
• Restore files. Optionally save a restore file next to the redacted copy: your original, encrypted with a password you choose. Send the redacted copy, keep the restore file, and you can always get the original back with Restore an original from a restore file…. Making a restore file needs a licence; opening one is free in every edition. (Keep the restore file and the redacted copy apart, and don't send the restore file with it.)
• Redact from the Vault. Open a PDF or image in your Vault and choose Share a redacted copy to send it without taking the original out. The document stays in memory only and is closed as soon as the Vault locks.
• Redact from Finder and File Explorer. Right-click a PDF, Word document or image and choose Redact with VaultSort…, or open a restore file with Restore with VaultSort… on a Mac.
• Password-protected PDFs. VaultSort asks for the password, and the redacted copy is saved without one.