Compare two documents to find differences

Word offers a useful function to compare two versions of the document and display only changed fragments. The Compare function does not change the original documents; by default, it creates a new document.

To compare two documents and display the changes, do the following:

   1.   Open the documents that you want to compare.

   2.   On the Review tab, in the Compare group, click the Compare button:

   3.   From the Compare drop-down list, select Compare... Compare two versions of a document (legal blackline):

   4.   In the Compare Documents dialog box:

• In the Original document group, browse for the document you want to use as the original document.
• In the Revised document group, browse for another document you want to compare with the original document.

  Note: You can change the label of changes by entering the corresponding label in the Label changes with field.

• Click the More >> button to select the settings for what you want to compare in the documents.

  For example:

  
  • Under Show changes, choose whether you want to show Character level or Word level changes.
  • If you do not want to display changes in a new document, choose the document in which you want to show the changes in the Show changes in group: in Original document or Revised document.

  Important: Any options you select under More will be the default options for comparison the next time you compare documents.

• Click OK.

Note: If either version of the document has tracked changes, Microsoft Word displays a message box:

Click Yes to accept the changes and compare the documents.

Word displays a new third document (unless otherwise specified) in which tracked changes in the original document are accepted, and changes in the revised document are shown as tracked changes. For example:

Notes:

• If you continue to work with the new third document, do not forget to save it because Word doesn't save it automatically.
• If you want to compare changes from several reviewers, from the Compare dropdown list, choose Combine... Combine revisions from multiple authors into a single document: