Switching the document's method
The three pills in the toolbar — Synthesize, Redact, Label — set how the whole document is anonymized. They’re the editor’s version of the anonymization modes, and switching between them is one click.
| Pill | What every entry becomes | Same as mode |
|---|---|---|
| Synthesize | A realistic fake value | Synthetic |
| Redact | A masking fill (█ ▓ ▒ ░ or your own) | Redaction |
| Label | A numbered token like [NAME_1] | Replacement |
The active pill is filled purple. Open a document that was run in synthetic mode and Synthesize is lit; open a redacted one and Redact is lit.
Switching keeps your edits
Section titled “Switching keeps your edits”This is the part that makes it safe to experiment. When you click a different pill, Piixie doesn’t throw away your work. It:
- snapshots how every entry is set under the current method, then
- restores the target method’s values — the ones it had last time you used that method, or sensible defaults for entries it hasn’t seen.
So if you carefully fixed three names under Synthesize, switched to Redact to see how a blacked-out version reads, then switched back — your three fixes are exactly where you left them. Hand edits (added, edited, or highlighted entries) are marked as yours and ride along through switches.
Settings for the active method
Section titled “Settings for the active method”Click the already-active pill to open its settings:
- Synthesize — the language / region for generated values (Español, Català, English, and more).
- Redact — the fill character: full block █, light shade ░, asterisks, or a custom one.
- Label — no settings; it tags each entry as
[TYPE_N].
The popover has two actions:
- Apply — re-derive the method with the new setting, keeping your hand-customized entries. This is the everyday button.
- Rebuild — the nuclear option. Throw away every per-method customization for every method and derive from scratch. Piixie asks you to confirm, because there’s no getting your edits back after.
Why you’d switch mid-review
Section titled “Why you’d switch mid-review”- A synthetic document reads naturally, but for a legal hand-off you want it visibly blacked out → switch to Redact, Save to output.
- A redacted document is unreadable for a colleague who needs context → switch to Synthesize.
- You need to preserve entity structure for a pipeline → Label.
Each switch regenerates the anonymized view so you see the result immediately. Nothing is saved to your real output file until you Save to output.