How to Unredact an Excel Spreadsheet
Overview
After your AI tool has analyzed or transformed a redacted spreadsheet, Conseal can restore the original values by mapping placeholder tokens back to real data. The unredacted output preserves any structural changes or new calculations the AI introduced, while replacing all placeholders with the correct original values.
Step-by-step instructions
Follow these steps to unredact an Excel spreadsheet and restore original data using Conseal.
- 1
Open the AI-processed spreadsheet in Conseal
Launch Conseal and open the .xlsx file returned from your AI tool. Conseal scans all sheets for redaction placeholder tokens.
- 2
Load the redaction map
Conseal automatically looks for the .csmap file paired with this spreadsheet. If not found automatically, click 'Load Map' and select the correct map file from your original redaction session.
- 3
Review cell-level mapping
Conseal shows a side-by-side preview with placeholder values and their corresponding originals. Review each mapping to confirm accuracy before applying.
- 4
Apply unredaction
Click 'Restore Original Values'. Conseal replaces all placeholder tokens across all sheets with their original values, preserving AI-added formulas, formatting changes, and new columns.
- 5
Export the restored spreadsheet
Click 'Export'. The final .xlsx file contains the AI-processed structure with all original sensitive data restored. Review the file before distributing or archiving.