Technical Guide to Working with PDF Documents

Technical Guide to

Working with PDF

Documents

Prepared by the

Ninth Circuit Appellate Lawyer

Representaves

Published November 23, 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 3

I. Basics: creating PDFs...................................................................................... 5

A. PDF creation methods. ........................................................................ 5

1. Converting your brief to a PDF. ................................................. 5

2. Scanning paper documents. ...................................................... 6

Avoid scanning documents wherever possible. .............. 6

Option 1: Free scanning software. .................................. 6

Option 2: Scanning using Adobe Acrobat Pro

DC.

................................................................................... 6

B. Making your PDF text-searchable. ....................................................... 7

II. Managing PDFs: combining documents and organizing pages. ..................... 9

A. Combining multiple documents into a single PDF. .............................. 9

B. Deleting a page. ................................................................................. 11

C. Adding a page. ................................................................................... 12

D. Replacing a page. ............................................................................... 14

III. Compiling the addendum and excerpts of record. ...................................... 15

A. Converting your addendum to PDF. .................................................. 15

1. Using Websites to Obtain Electronic Copies of Legal

Authorities. .............................................................................. 16

2. Converting electronic sources to PDF. ..................................... 16

Option 1 (preferred method): Create addendum

with word processing program, and convert to

PDF. ............................................................................... 16

Option 2: Convert webpages to PDF by printing

to PDF. ........................................................................... 18

B. Creating electronic Excerpts of Record. ............................................. 19

1. Contents of the Excerpts of Record. ........................................ 20

2. Collecting your documents. ..................................................... 22

3. Adding page numbers (Bates stamping). ................................. 23

IV. Bookmarking a PDF. ..................................................................................... 27

A. General advice on bookmarks. .......................................................... 27

B. Creating bookmarks. .......................................................................... 27

1. Option 1: Create bookmarks in Microsoft Word. .................... 27

2. Option 2: Creating bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat Pro

DC. ........................................................................................... 28

C. Editing bookmarks. ............................................................................ 29

D. Moving bookmarks. ........................................................................... 30

E. Nesting bookmarks. ........................................................................... 30

V. Handling redactions and sealed materials. .................................................. 31

A. Redacting using a word processor. .................................................... 32

B. Redacting using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. ............................................ 32

VI. Filing tips. ..................................................................................................... 34

A. Reducing the size of the PDF file. ...................................................... 34

B. Ensure compliance with CM/ECF requirements. ............................... 34

C. Choosing the correct document description in CM/ECF. ................... 35

INTRODUCTION

This Ninth Circuit Guide to Electronic Briefs is designed to help attorneys,

self-represented parties, and law firm staff prepare briefs and accompanying

documents in portable document format (PDF) for electronic filing. Judges and

other court staff increasingly review briefs and accompanying documents

exclusively electronically. By preparing documents that are easy to navigate,

search, and annotate, you will help the judges and court staff get the most from

your filings.

This Guide covers:

• The basics of creating PDFs

• Managing PDFs, including combining documents and organizing pages

• Compiling the Addendum and Excerpts of Record

• Adding page numbers and bookmarks

• Special considerations for redactions and sealed materials

• Filing tips

* * *

This Guide shows the steps and screenshots for the current versions of

Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC at the time the Guide was

prepared (November 2020). Future updates to the software may change how to

perform these tasks. The Court does not endorse any particular product.

Some tasks cannot be completed using the free version of Adobe Acrobat

Reader DC. In those circumstances, the Guide refers to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. In

many instances, free or low-cost software is also available to perform the tasks.

* * *

Several other resources are available, including:

• FRAP and Circuit Rules

• Forms and Instructions

• CM/ECF User Guide

• Appellate Lawyer Representatives’ Guide

• Shell Brief

• Excerpts of Record shell

* * *

This Guide was prepared by the following Appellate Lawyer Representatives

and court staff:

Eric M. Fraser, Brian P. Goldman, Nancy M. Olson, Christopher Pooser, and

Cynthia A. Stein, and was advised by Molly Dwyer, Clerk of Court, and Susan

Gelmis, Chief Deputy Clerk. Portions of this Guide were drawn from the

Massachusetts Appeals Court Clerk’s Guide to Electronic Briefs.

This Guide is a work in progress, and we welcome any suggestions for its

improvement. Please email any suggestions or comments to

ALRPracticeGuide@ca9.uscourts.gov. We will do our best to keep the guide up to

date, but the Court’s rules, general orders, electronic filing systems, and CM/ECF

User Guide can and do change. In the event of conflict or possible confusion, the

Court’s official rules, orders, and guidelines control.

I. Basics: creating PDFs.

A. PDF creation methods.

1. Converting your brief to a PDF.

Your brief must be generated from the original word processing file to

permit the electronic version of the document to be searched and copied.

Cir. R. 25-5(d). PDF files created by scanning paper documents are

prohibited, except in certain situations. Id. Thus, do not print your brief to

paper and scan it. Instead, convert it to PDF format directly from your

word processing software, or convert it to PDF format using Adobe Acrobat.

This section shows how to do so using Word.

Step 1: Go to the File tab.

Step 2: Select Save as Adobe PDF.

Step 3: In the dialog box, click Save. Be sure you save a copy in Word

as well.

2. Scanning paper documents.

Avoid scanning documents wherever possible.

Any document that exists in electronic form should be converted

directly into a PDF. Documents that exist in electronic form should not be

scanned. Occasionally you may need to scan a document that exists only in

paper form (e.g., a trial exhibit). This section addresses how to manage

scanned documents.

Option 1: Free scanning software.

Your scanner may have come with software to scan documents to PDF.

If so, you may use that. You may also search online for various free

applications that support scanning paper documents to PDF.

Option 2: Scanning using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

One commonly used PDF creation application is Adobe Acrobat Pro

DC. To scan a paper document into a PDF with Adobe:

Step 1: Go to the File tab > select Create > select PDF from

Scanner.

Step 2: In the Scan & OCR dialog box, go to Scan using and click on the

Settings icon next to Default Settings > under Resolution,

select 300 dpi > under Output, check the Recognize Text (OCR)

box > select Save Settings at the top right corner of the screen

to maintain these settings as your default.

Step 3: Place the document in your scanner > select Scan.

B. Making your PDF text-searchable.

All documents submitted for electronic filing (including briefs, excerpts

of record, motions, and forms) must be in text-searchable format. See Cir.

R. 25-5(d). Text-searchable PDFs allow users to search for keywords,

highlight text, insert notes, and copy and paste material within the PDF.

Making your Brief, Addendum, and Excerpts of Record OCR searchable is a

critical step because it allows judges and court staff to effectively and

efficiently review and annotate the documents. The Clerk may reject your

electronic filing if it is not OCR compliant.

Some PDFs—including those generated directly from the Microsoft

Word file (see supra § I.A.1)—already contain searchable text. For PDFs

that do not contain searchable text, you must run an OCR (optical character

recognition) process. This section describes how to run OCR on your

documents.

This function is not available in the free version of Adobe Acrobat

Reader. Various free websites and applications will add searchable text to a

PDF. Alternatively, the steps below apply to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Step 1: Go to the Tools menu > select Scan & OCR > select Scan &

OCR or Enhance Scans > click Open.

Step 2: In the Enhance Scans toolbar, select Recognize Text > select In

This File.

Step 3: Under the Pages dropdown, select All Pages > click on

Settings, we recommend setting the Downsample To box

to 300 dpi > click OK.

Step 4: If an alert appears stating that Acrobat could not perform

OCR because the page contains renderable text, this

means the page is already searchable.

Step 5: Click Ignore future errors in this document > click OK > click

Save.

II. Managing PDFs: combining documents and organizing pages.

You may need to combine multiple documents into one PDF, or add,

delete, or replace pages—for example, when assembling PDFs of district

court filings into the excerpts of record. This section addresses how to do

these tasks.

The free version of Adobe Reader does not support performing some

of these operations. This section refers to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. There is

also a selection of free and low-cost software that offers this functionality

that may be found online.

A. Combining multiple documents into a single PDF.

Your brief, required certificates, and any appendix must be submitted

as one document. Each volume of the excerpts of record should be

submitted as one document. (See § III.B below.) This section discusses how

to combine multiple PDFs into one document.

Step 1: Choose File > Create > Combine Files Into a Single PDF.

Step 2: Select Add Files to select files from a folder on your

computer. If the documents you wish to combine are

currently open, you can select Add Open Files instead.

Step 3: In the dialog box, highlight all the files or folder of files that

you want to combine into a single PDF. The files can be a mix

of formats (i.e. Word, Excel, PDF, etc.). Click Open.

Step 4: Choose between Thumbnail View and List View .

Arrange the files in the order that you want them to appear

using the Move Up and Move Down buttons or by dragging

and dropping the file names.

Step 5: If you forgot a file, you can add it using the Add Files

button.

Step 6: Select the Combine button in the dialog box and save the

resulting combined file to your computer.

B. Deleting a page.

Step 1: Select Tools > Organize Pages.

Step 2: Click the thumbnail of the page or pages you want to

delete, then click on the Trashcan button to delete.

Step 3: Click OK to remove the pages.

C. Adding a page.

Step 1: Select Tools > Organize Pages.

Step 2: Select Organize Pages > Insert > From File to select files from a

folder on your computer.

Step 3: In the dialog box, highlight the file you want to add, then click

Open. If the file you select has multiple pages, all pages will be

added. You can delete any unwanted pages following the

instructions to delete a page above.

Step 4: In the next dialog box, select Before or After from the

Location option, then select from the Pages option where

you want the new page(s) to be added. Then click OK.

D. Replacing a page.

Step 1: Select Tools > Organize Pages.

Step 2: Click the thumbnail of the page(s) you want to replace, then

click Replace.

Step 3: In the dialog box, highlight the file that contains the

replacement page(s), then click Open.

Step 4: In the next dialog box, under Original, verify that the

page(s) you want to replace are correct. Next, under

Replacement, type the page number that corresponds to

the first page to be used as the replacement. Acrobat will

automatically select a page range that mirrors the number

of pages you chose to be replaced in the original. For

example, suppose you elected to replace pages 5 through

7 (three pages) of the original file. If you elect to start with

page 2 of the replacement file, Acrobat will automatically

select a range of pages 2 through 4 (three pages) in the

replacement file. Click OK when you are done.

III. Compiling the addendum and excerpts of record.

A. Converting your addendum to PDF.

Some briefs will include an addendum. Immigration cases require

specific documents to be included in an addendum. See Circuit Rule 28-2.7.

And in all cases, pertinent constitutional provisions, treaties, statutes,

ordinances, regulations and rules may be included in an addendum

containing a table of contents, which may be bound with the brief or filed

separately. Id. (The text of those provisions may also be provided verbatim

within the brief, directly after the statement of issues presented for

review.)

1. Using Websites to Obtain Electronic Copies of Legal

Authorities.

To begin, you should collect the pertinent statutes, rules, etc. in

electronic format. Do not scan materials for the addendum unless you

cannot obtain them in electronic format. Scanning results in file sizes that

may be too large for the Court’s filing system, and often results in illegible

documents. If you must scan a document that is unavailable online, please

make it OCR searchable, as detailed below in § I.B. See Circuit Rule 25-5(d).

Many federal authorities are available online. For example, the

following resources may be useful.

• U.S. Code search tool: https://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

• Federal Rules of Procedure, Evidence, etc.:

https://www.uscourts.gov/rules-policies/current-rules-practice-

procedure

• Various primary sources, including state law materials, through Cornell

Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/

• Online legal search databases such as Westlaw and Lexis

2. Converting electronic sources to PDF.

Option 1 (preferred method): Create addendum with

word processing program, and convert to PDF.

To provide a clean copy of all required addendum materials, the Court

suggests copying and pasting the text of pertinent materials into a word

processing program, which will also allow you to add the required table of

contents, and then convert the document into PDF.

Step 1: Open a blank document in your word processing program.

Step 2: Conduct an internet search for the legal authorities needed for

your addendum.

Step 3: For example, if one of the pertinent legal authorities for your

brief is the Tenth Amendment, after finding the text of that

amendment online, copy the text. Do not include

accompanying material such as commentary.

Step 4: Move to your word processing program. Start a new page for

each source included in your addendum. On a new page, right-

click and mouse over Paste Special, selecting Unformatted

Unicode Text, or if the version of the word processing program

you are using provides paste icons, select the third icon, Keep

Text Only.

Step 5: Continue this process until you have copied and pasted each

pertinent authority into your addendum.

Step 6: Adjust the typeface, spacing, margins, indentation, and other

formatting to ensure that your addendum is easy to read and

use.

Step 7: When you are finished adding authority, add the required

table of contents at the beginning of your addendum.

Step 8: After you have added a table of contents and applied required

formatting, convert your addendum into PDF, as described

above in § I.A.1.

Option 2: Convert webpages to PDF by printing to PDF.

If you are unable to create your addendum by pasting pertinent

authority into a word processing program, you may also print each

electronic authority to PDF, and then combine the authorities into a single

PDF.

This option is not preferred because it often results in a longer and

less-organized Addendum, and often includes extraneous material.

Step 1: After finding your pertinent authority online, right-click and

select Print (or using your keyboard, type Ctrl + p).

Step 2: When the print dialog box opens, set the printer destination to

Save as PDF or Print to PDF, depending on your browser.

Step 3:

Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all pertinent authorities. After you have

finished finding pertinent authorities and printing to PDF, create

a table of contents and print that to PDF. Finally, combine the

table of contents along with the authorities into a single PDF, as

detailed above in § II.A.

B. Creating electronic Excerpts of Record.

Before creating your electronic Excerpts of Record, you should review

in detail the current version of Circuit Rule 30-1. Notably, the Ninth Circuit

requires Excerpts of Record rather than an Appendix as described in

FRAP 30. You must follow this rule closely or risk having your excerpts

rejected by the Court. If your excerpts are rejected, you will have to correct

them and refile the corrected version. In addition, consider reviewing the

Excerpts of Record shell.

You should compile your excerpts by using electronic documents (e.g.,

the relevant portions of the district court record downloaded from PACER).

Avoid scanning paper copies to PDF, which creates larger and often illegible

files. If you must scan a document that is unavailable online, please make it

OCR searchable, as described above in § I.B. See Circuit Rule 25-5(d).

The excerpts must be submitted electronically, separately from the

brief, and in one or more volumes, depending on size.

Notes: In social security appeals, the complete certified administrative

record should be submitted by the appellant under an entirely separate

CAR filing event at the time the opening brief and any other excerpts are

filed.

Neither party need file an Excerpts of Record in any petition for review

challenging an order of removal in an immigration case.

1. Contents of the Excerpts of Record.

The excerpts must contain the following, and be ordered in the

following manner.

Volume I:

• Each volume must contain a caption (cover) page, as described in

FRAP 32(a), and the cover page shall include the volume number

(e.g., Volume 2 of 6). See Circuit Rule 30-1.5(d).

• Volume I must contain all decisions being appealed. See Rule 30-

1.4(a) for a description of what to include in Volume I.

• Unless the entire set of excerpts will not exceed 300 pages, the

decisions being appealed are the only materials that should be placed

in Volume I.

• If the entire excerpts will not exceed 300 pages, then include a table

of contents, the decisions being appealed, and the other relevant

parts of the record, generally arranged by file date in reverse

chronological order.

Volume II and subsequent volumes:

• Cover page (as described above)

• The subsequent volumes should include all other parts of the record

relevant to deciding the appeal, generally arranged in reverse

chronological order.

• No volume may contain more than 300 pages, including the caption

(cover) page.

• The notice of appeal and lower court docket sheet shall be included

at the end of the last volume in the non-sealed Excerpts of Record.

• All volumes of multi-volume Excerpts of Record (except the index

volume described below) must be numbered consecutively across all

volumes in a set, beginning with the caption page of the first volume

as page number 1. Every page (including blank pages, cover pages,

etc.) must be numbered.

Trial Transcript Volume:

• If your excerpts will include a complete trial transcript, you may

submit the trial transcript as a separate volume(s), paginated

consecutively to the other ER volumes.

• All documentary and other exhibits capable of production in PDF

format may also be placed in this volume at the end of the transcript,

at the end of the final volume of the unsealed Excerpts of Record,

just before the notice of appeal and docket sheet, or, if appropriate,

in the final volume of sealed Excerpts of Record.

Separate Index Volume:

• For multi-volume Excerpts of Record, you must submit a table of

contents, as a separate PDF file, that covers all volumes of your

excerpts. The Index Volume must be paginated separately from the

numbered volumes, and all other volumes must not include a table

of contents. See Circuit Rule 30-1.5(a) for detailed instructions.

Separate Sealed Volume:

• Documents that need to be sealed must be submitted in a separate,

final volume. See Circuit Rule 30-1.4(d). For additional discussion

about sealed documents, see § V, below.

2. Collecting your documents.

After you have determined what to include in your Excerpts of Record

and how many volumes will be needed based on the 300-page-per-volume

limit, you should organize your documents before combining them into a

single PDF.

It is helpful to place all of the necessary PDF files into a folder,

numbering them to match the order in which they will appear in the

excerpts, so you can visually check to ensure you are not forgetting

something, and to make sure the documents appear in the correct order.

In the below example, all documents will be in Volume I because they

do not exceed 300 pages. Refer to § II.A, above, for instructions on how to

combine multiple PDF files into a single file.

Note that the table of contents PDF is a placeholder until you apply

pagination. After applying pagination, as explained immediately below,

return to your table of contents document in the word processing program

where you created it, add the applicable Excerpts of Record starting page

number to each item in the excerpts, save or print it to PDF, and then

replace the relevant page(s), as described above in § II.D.

3. Adding page numbers (Bates stamping).

When you have combined all of the files into a single PDF, you may

now apply ER page numbers to the entire file. The free version of Acrobat

Reader does not support this task. This section describes how to use Adobe

Acrobat Pro DC, but there are also free or low-cost options available.

Step 1: Click on Tools and then Stamp.

Step 2: On the ribbon at the top of the document, additional Stamp

options will appear. Click on Bates Numbering and choose

Add.

Step 3: Select your document and click OK. (Note that for creating

multi-volume Excerpts of Record, at this step, you may click

Add Files and add all of the volumes you would like to

consecutively Bates stamp, except the index volume.)

Step 4: A box will appear with two options: Replace Existing or Add

New. When adding Bates Stamps for the first time, click Add

New. (Note: if you are correcting Bates Stamps that were

previously applied using this feature, you may click Replace

Existing.)

Step 5: Click on the Output Options button. Under File Naming, click

the Add to original file names radio button and add text in the

Insert Before or Insert After dialog box. See example below

(_Bates). By taking this step the Bates numbering will appear in

a copy of your PDF, leaving the original PDF untouched.

Step 6: When the Add Header and Footer box appears, you may

change the font, size, style, color, margins, etc. in the upper

boxes.

Step 7: To place your ER Bates Stamps in the bottom right corner, click

inside the cursor box below Right Footer Text, then click the

button labeled Insert Bates Number.

Step 8: Enter the Number of Digits, Start Number, and Prefix.

• The Number of Digits will vary depending upon how voluminous your

Excerpts of Record will be.

• For Start Number, choose 1 if you are numbering your first volume.

For subsequent volumes, a Start Number that is one page higher

than the last page in the preceding volume.

• For Prefix, use “ER” for the Excerpts of Record (ER), which

accompany the opening brief. Use “SER” for the Supplemental

Excerpts of Record (SER), which accompany the answering brief. Use

“FER” for a Further Excerpts of Record (FER), which may accompany a

reply brief.

• Leave Suffix blank, and click OK.

Step 9: You should now see a preview of your Bates Stamp on the

bottom right corner of the preview pane. You can adjust the

position (if needed) by changing the Margin (Inches) settings

near the top right of the dialog box.

Step 10: Click OK, and your Bates Stamps will be added to the

document(s) you selected.

IV. Bookmarking a PDF.

A. General advice on bookmarks.

Although bookmarks are not required for electronically filed Briefs,

Addendums, Excerpts of Record, and other filings, the Court strongly

encourages parties to add bookmarks. Bookmarks are a type of link visible

in the Bookmarks pane of PDF viewers. They allow a judge to quickly locate

different areas of your argument or particular documents in the record.

Judges frequently comment that bookmarks are helpful and encourage

their use in a brief and excerpts of record.

If you choose to bookmark your document, you should use descriptive

labels (i.e., Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Issues Presented, etc.)

rather than simply indicating page numbers. The Shell Brief accompanying

the Court’s Appellate Practice Guide has a helpful Table of Contents that

should give you an idea of what sections to bookmark separately. See

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/uploads/guides/Shell_Brief.pdf.

If a section heading is very long, consider shortening the bookmark to

summarize the heading. Long headings frequently get truncated in the

bookmarks pane. For example, consider the heading “The government’s

argument fails because the Court lacks jurisdiction to consider it.” In a

narrow bookmarks pane, that might get truncated to “The government’s

argument fails bec...” Instead, leave the long section heading in the brief,

but shorten the PDF bookmark to something like “Lack of jurisdiction.”

B. Creating bookmarks.

1. Option 1: Create bookmarks in Microsoft Word.

Using Word, you can automatically generate bookmarks in your PDF if

you use the Styles feature to label headings within your document. The

document will automatically include bookmarks based on the headings

when you generate the PDF using the built-in Adobe Acrobat features in

Word. The Shell Brief uses styles that will automatically generate

bookmarks.

To use Word to create bookmarks, you must follow certain instructions

when converting the Word file to PDF.

Step 1: See the instructions above at § I.A.1 for converting a Word

document to a PDF.

Step 2: Once you have selected Save As Adobe PDF, select the Options

button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Step 3: In the Options dialog box, go to PDF Options > check the

Create Bookmarks box > check Convert Word Headings to

Bookmarks under Create Bookmarks > click OK.

Step 4: Click Save.

2. Option 2: Creating bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

When using the Combine Documents feature, Adobe Acrobat

automatically creates bookmarks by merging file names of the PDFs. When

naming your files, choose short names that allow them to be easily

identified so that you will not have to do the extra work of renaming your

bookmarks (e.g., Notice of Appeal, Judgment, etc.)

To manually add bookmarks, use the following steps.

Step 1: Click on the Bookmarks button on the left to open the

Bookmarks panel. Tip: if you do not see the bookmarks panel,

click the small arrow on the left-hand side of your PDF to

expand the Bookmarks panel.

Step 2: Navigate to the section you would like to bookmark. Using

your mouse cursor, click to highlight the heading you want to

bookmark

Step 3: In the Bookmarks panel, click on the Options pulldown >

select New Bookmark > or click on the New Bookmark

button. If you would like to add a new bookmark in relation to

an existing bookmark, select the bookmark under which you

want the new bookmark to appear. If you don’t select a

bookmark, the new bookmark will appear at the end of the list.

Step 4: Go to the new bookmark that appears in the Bookmarks

panel > if you selected text, the text becomes the name of the

new bookmark > edit the name as necessary.

C. Editing bookmarks.

To edit the name of a bookmark, double click the bookmark > retype

the name > click outside the bookmark or press the Enter or Return keys on

your keyboard.

To delete a bookmark, select the bookmark > press the Delete button

at the top of the Bookmarks panel.

D. Moving bookmarks.

Step 1: In the Bookmarks panel, click and hold on the Bookmark icon

next to the bookmark’s name > drag the Bookmark icon to the

desired location. For example, clicking and dragging the first

bookmark icon to the bottom of the bookmarks list will move

that bookmark to the end.

Step 2: A Line icon will appear to show the new location.

Step 3: Release the Bookmark icon and drop the bookmark in its

new location.

E. Nesting bookmarks.

A list of bookmarks can be “nested” beneath other bookmarks to

create “tiers” and show a relationship between topics. Use this function to

make the structure of your bookmarks match the structure of your brief

and Excerpts of Record.

Step 1: In the Bookmarks panel, click and hold on the Bookmark icon

next to the bookmark’s name.

Step 2: Drag the Bookmark icon to the parent bookmark under which

you would like it nested > release the Bookmark icon once

the Line icon appears indented below the parent bookmark.

V. Handling redactions and sealed materials.

The Ninth Circuit requires parties to redact any personal identifying

information—including, but not limited to, social security numbers,

financial account numbers, birthdates, and the names of any individuals

known to be minors—in publicly accessible filings. Fed. R. App. P. 25(a)(5) &

Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2. This is different from filing documents under seal. Briefs

and excerpts of record may be filed under seal—meaning the entire

document is inaccessible to the public—only in limited circumstances. A

motion to seal is usually required. For Rules governing filing under seal, see

Cir. R. 27-13. Note that if the Excerpts of Record contain documents that

need to be sealed, they must be placed in a separate, final volume, as

explained above in § III.B.1.

Parties should generally try to avoid including personally identifying or

confidential material wherever possible. Where personally identifiable

information must be included, the best option is to redact using a word

processor to change the original text. If the document cannot be edited in a

word processor, you can redact a PDF using PDF editing software like

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. There are also some free and low-cost PDF editing

software options that offer this functionality.

Important: Do not attempt to redact by changing text color to white

or using black highlighter over the text. These methods are not secure

because the text can still be copied and pasted. See, e.g., Eugene Volokh,

Avoid Super-Embarrassing Redaction Failures (Jan. 7, 2020),

https://reason.com/2020/01/07/avoid-super-embarrassing-redaction-

failures.

A. Redacting using a word processor.

When preparing your brief, the best way to redact sensitive

information is to do so in the original text file by locating the information

and replacing it with “xxx,” an initial, or “beginning with” or “ending with”

where appropriate.

Example: Jodie’s SSN is 555-55-5555. Her redacted number may be

written as “xxx-xx-5555,” or “the SSN ending in 5555.”

Example: Jodie Smith is a minor. Her redacted name is “J. S.”

B. Redacting using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Step 1: Select Tools > Redact > Open.

Step 2: Select Mark for Redaction > Text & Images. You can also

select Find Text to search for words or phrases and mark them

for redaction.

Step 3: Highlight the text you would like to redact. When you release

your mouse, your blue highlight should turn into a red box.

Step 4: Place your cursor over the word to preview what the redaction

will look like.

Step 5: Select Apply, then click OK.

VI. Filing tips.

A. Reducing the size of the PDF file.

Each PDF that you attach to a filing may not exceed 100 MB. Cir.

Rule 25-5(d).

The fastest way to reduce PDF file size is to go to File > Save as Other >

Reduced Size PDF > OK. The process will pause for you to provide a new

name for your PDF, or if you keep the old name, you will be warned that

you are writing over the existing file. Click Save.

If that doesn’t make the file small enough, go to File > Save As >

Optimized PDF. Click the Audit Space Usage button to see which elements

of the PDF are taking up the most space. Use that information to adjust the

settings on the PDF Optimizer dialog box. Click OK.

Before beginning this process, check the original file size so that you

can compare your reduced file size. To check your file size, right-click

anywhere inside the PDF and select Document Properties. In the Advanced

section toward the bottom, you will see File Size:

B. Ensure compliance with CM/ECF requirements.

The CM/ECF system will reject PDF files with the following content:

• Documents that do not comply with PDF format standards

• Documents that contain JavaScript

• Encrypted or password-protected documents

• Documents containing scripts that can launch an external application

• Documents with internal attachments

• Documents with audio or video content

• Documents created with MacOS using a fillable form in the Safari

browser (use an alternate browser instead)

• Documents with MacOS using Microsoft Word with the “Best for

printing” option (instead, use the “Best for Electronic Distribution

option).

C. Choosing the correct document description in CM/ECF.

To avoid the Clerk rejecting the filing, be sure to follow the instructions

in CM/ECF about selecting the appropriate Type of Document for your

transaction. For example, to file a brief, select “Brief on the Merits” and

upload the brief as the “main document.”

Then in a separate transaction, select “Excerpts of Record” and follow

the prompts to upload your ER volumes. The document descriptions

should be ER Vol 1, ER Vol 2, etc.