Outlook Has No Redact Button. Here's How to Black Out a Message Anyway

The thing people search for is not a feature Outlook has

A lot of searches for "how to redact an email in Outlook" are looking for a menu item that does not exist. Classic Outlook and Outlook on the web can apply sensitivity labels, delay send, or recall a message in limited Exchange setups. None of those black out a name, a national insurance number, or a client's address inside a message you already have.

What people usually need is one of two jobs, and they get mixed up. The first is stopping a message you have not sent yet — you edit the draft, or you don't send it. The second is producing a copy of a message that already exists, with other people's personal data removed, so you can forward it, disclose it in a Subject Access Request, or file it in a bundle. Outlook can do the first. It cannot do the second in a way that survives copying, printing to PDF badly, or someone selecting "unredacted" text later.

The reliable path is: keep the original, save a native copy (.msg from Outlook, .eml from most other clients), run a redaction pass on that copy, and only share the result.

A concrete example

What this looks like for a saved Outlook message

Use this when you need to share or disclose a message you already have, not when you are still writing it.

The situation

You have a thread in Outlook that names a colleague, a customer's home address and a case reference. You need to send a copy to someone who is allowed to see the case — a solicitor, a regulator, or another team — but not those extra personal details. Outlook will not let you black them out in place.

Source and destination you choose

Where it comes from

Outlook Message Format (.msg)

Saved from the open message via File → Save As, or from a multi-select of messages

Why this one: A native .msg keeps the body, headers and attachments together. A screenshot or a printout does not.

Also works with

.eml saved from another mail client
A small PST export if you have a whole folder to do at once

Where the result goes

Redacted PDF, text, or email copy

The same messages with names, addresses and other identifiers blacked out

Why this one: This is the file you can actually send. The original .msg stays on your side.

Or choose

Side-by-side review before download
CSV of detected phrases if you need an audit list

The actual steps in Outlook

1

Save the message as .msg, not as a screenshot

Open the message (or select several), choose File → Save As, and pick Outlook Message Format. That file is what redaction tools can read.
2

Upload the file to Email Redact

Drag the .msg (or a handful of them) into https://emailtools.hexamail.com/redact. The pass looks for names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses and similar identifiers.
3

Review the suggested list. Do not accept it blindly

Add phrases that matter in this case (a nickname, an internal project code). Remove anything the recipient is meant to see. Selective redaction is the point — not emptying the message.
4

Download the redacted copy and keep the original

Store the untouched .msg with your records. Share only the redacted export.

This does not unsend a message the other person already has. If the problem is a mail you already delivered, recall is a separate, unreliable Exchange feature and is not redaction. Redaction applies to copies you still control.

Why printing it and using a marker still fails

The analogue habit — print, black marker, scan — looks thorough and is still what a lot of offices do under a deadline. Digitally it is fragile. A scan of a markered page can leave text recoverable from contrast, and you have already destroyed the email-as-email: no headers, no attachments in native form, no way to prove what the original file was.

Converting to PDF first and drawing black boxes in a viewer has the same failure mode unless the redaction is burned in (text removed from the file, not merely covered). Adobe's own guidance on PDF redaction is explicit about this: overlaying a black rectangle is not the same as removing the underlying text. Email Redact works on the message file so you are not relying on a box sitting on top of live text.

Questions that come up once Outlook will not cooperate

Can I redact only the names I choose, not the whole body?

Yes. Suggested detections are a starting list. You keep or drop each item, and you can add a specific word or phrase that the first pass missed.

What about attachments still sitting on the message?

Redact the email file so the attachment stays with the message rather than being detached, edited in another tool, and manually stuck back on. Always open the result and check the attachment as well as the body.

I only have an .eml, not Outlook. Does the same path work?

Yes. .eml is the usual save format outside Outlook. The redaction pass accepts .eml and .msg the same way; the Outlook-specific step is only how you get the file out of the client.

Is this the same as a GDPR Subject Access Request pack?

It is the same mechanical step — remove other people's personal data from messages you are about to disclose — but a SAR also needs a judgement about what is the requester's data in the first place. That part is covered in the SAR guide, not here.