Commonly Asked Questions
Commonly Asked Questions
Q: "Can I edit an applicant's text/essay answers myself?"
A: No — admins cannot edit open-field text answers on an applicant's behalf. Only documents/media uploads and contributor form submissions can be edited by admins. If a client wants an essay corrected or redacted, the applicant has to make the edit themselves (which means reopening the application for them).
Q: Can I redact identifying information (like a facility or organization name) from inside an essay so review is blind?
A: Not directly. The redact toggle hides an entire question from reviewers — it doesn't let you find and replace specific words within an answer. If specific text needs to be removed rather than the whole question hidden, the applicant needs to edit their own response.
Editing a submitted application on an applicant's behalf
If an applicant contacts you to correct information after submitting — a typo, an outdated address, an incorrect document — you can make the update directly from the application without needing the applicant to resubmit.
Log in and open the program.
Locate the applicant's submission and click View to open the individual application.
Use the Documents tab to replace or upload a corrected file, or the Contributors tab to edit contributor details on the applicant's behalf.
Editing document or contributor fields on behalf of an applicant does not change the application's status or stage. The applicant is not notified unless the edit triggers an automated communication (for example, a new contributor request).
If the correction involves a question response rather than a document or contributor, see How can I allow an applicant to make an edit? to reopen the relevant step so the applicant can update their own answer.
Redacting sensitive data from an application
Removing a question option on a reopened form
If you reopen a live application form to make changes — for example, removing an answer choice from a multiple-choice question — be aware of how this affects applications that already selected that option:
If you leave the application as-is, the applicant's original question and answer remain unchanged — even if you've since removed that answer option from the live form.
If you reopen the applicant's form for editing, the applicant will see the updated version of the question (with the option removed) the next time they log in, and they'll need to submit a new answer for that question.
Callout: Removing an answer option only affects applicants going forward, or applicants whose form you've specifically reopened. If you want existing submissions to reflect the change, you'll need to reopen each affected application individually — Kaleidoscope won't do this automatically or in bulk.