Draftable Document Comparison FAQ: Your Questions Answered
Have you got a burning question for the Draftable team, or is there something you find yourself wondering every now and again but haven't managed to get pen to paper? Here are some of our most frequently asked questions, along with their answers.
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At Draftable, we love hearing from our users, whether they’re calling in to let us know how much they appreciate our service or just asking whatever questions popped into their minds. Our cutting-edge document comparison service is one of our favourite topics– after all, who doesn’t love a chance to get talking about what they do best?
Here, we’ve created a collection of our most frequently asked questions.
What Are The Draftable Options?
We offer 3 options for the Draftable document comparison tool:
Online is a convenient free service that allows you to compare two documents and highlight differences on the web, from any place you can get connected. The desktop option is a higher-powered stand-alone application with a few extra features. And the API is perfect for when you want to integrate our document comparison capabilities into your own software.
How Does The Draftable Software Work?
Think of Draftable’s document comparison software as being a self-driving car. No, we can’t take you to the supermarket, but otherwise we work much the same way. way. Self-driving cars use AI to detect and label the various hazards and things that pop up around them, and are able to tell the difference between a lamppost and a pedestrian, for example.
Our highly evolved AI technology has learned to detect and define various areas of a document in a similar way. It can scan a document and identify areas such as headings, subheadings, and paragraphs.
What Can I Use Draftable For?
There are dozens of different applications for Draftable’s document comparison services. Here are just a few:
Legal
One of the main uses of our software is in legal contract reviews. As multiple parties are involved in the writing, revision, negotiation, and finalisation of the contract, Draftable ensures that everyone knows what the changes are and understands what they are agreeing to.
This is excellent not only for internal use but if you are using the API, you can also send a link to your clients to the comparison output so they can see the updates too.
Insurance
Insurance brokers establishing insurance for a client with the underwriter need to ensure that nothing in the contract has been changed along the way. You can use Draftable to compare the document you sent off for signing with the one that comes back to ensure that nothing about the risk, premium, or anything else has changed.
What Are The Benefits Of Using Draftable?
The benefits of using Draftable include saving time, saving money, and making your life that much easier. Once you try it, you’ll understand! Here’s why.
Improve Efficiency
Draftable can massively improve the efficiency of a contract review process. Instead of waiting for everyone to manually check the updates on a document, you can just upload it to Draftable and send everyone a link to the comparison with all updates highlighted. This can significantly speed up the process as it takes each person minutes, not hours, to see all of the changes.
Minimise Risk
By comparing a signed contract with the one you sent off, you’re minimising the risk that the signing party has changed the wording. Even updated terminology or an extra 0 at the end of a number can have a considerable impact.
Simple Comparison Viewer
One of the best things about Draftable is the easy to understand comparison viewer. Its user interface is so simple that even our less tech-savvy clients find it easy to use. The change list on the side shows every single change, and you can click on any of them to be taken to that section of the document.
Our comparison interface also offers the ability to view the document side by side to compare the old version against the new or see it in a single document with all changes underlined.
I Just Compare Documents Side By Side – Why Do I Need Draftable?
Yes, you could open two documents and just read them carefully side by side, but this method is both slow and prone to errors. The Draftable software will highlight every single revision so that you can’t miss a single change!
Everything from new sentences to a simple full stop or font change can be highlighted. If you’re dealing with legal documents and contracts especially, even the slightest word or grammar change can have huge effects on the meaning of the document. Compare the most thorough way you can – using Draftable.
How Did Draftable Get Started?
Ben Toner, the founder of Draftable, was studying quantum mechanics at uni and was designing a solution to compare DNA. Ben was working alongside a team of others and got frustrated that he couldn’t see what people changed when they edited a document.
Rather than let his frustration end in defeat, Ben took it as a challenge and began programming a tool to solve this issue. Turns out, it was easier to compare DNA than documents, but eventually, he created the Draftable software we know and love today! Draftable is, first and foremost, a bunch of people who love technology and, second, a commercial operation.
What Are The File Types Draftable Can Compare?
Draftable can compare Word, PowerPoint, RTF, Excel, and PDF documents. Most document comparison tools, such as the one inbuilt in Word or Adobe Acrobat, only allow you to compare one type of file against another file of the same type.
For instance, you might be able to compare Word document against Word document. That's great, but we let you mix and match! With our tool, you can now compare Word docs against PDFs, PowerPoints against Excel files, or any other combination.
Can Draftable Be Integrated Into My Other Software?
Absolutely! Draftable uses a REST API, so it can be integrated with anything that uses that type of API.
Customers often integrate Draftable with their customer resource management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), or document management solution (DMS) software. It can be set up so that when your staff login to the CRM, for example, they can select files and click compare to see the output.
You can even put it into a website iframe, embedding the viewer so that your staff can use Draftable directly on a webpage.
How Do You Compare Larger Documents?
If you’ve been using the Draftable online comparison tool, you may have noticed that there are limits on the size of documents you can upload. The online tool only deals with documents that are up to 10MB or 300 pages long.
If you need to compare longer or larger files (or Excel spreadsheets), you can do that using Draftable Desktop.
Which Draftable Tool Should I Get?
Our pricing models vary according to which version of Draftable you’re using, but the free online version of Draftable is a great way to try out the tool and see if it would be helpful for your business!
Draftable Desktop – The desktop version is aimed at users who value security, as the files never leave your computer. It’s also more suitable for small businesses or individual users, as you pay per user for the license.
Draftable API – Draftable’s API is the ultimate solution for businesses and enterprise-level clients. Instead of paying per user, you pay for a certain number of comparisons each year. This is great because you can run a comparison and share it with as many others as you want for no extra charge. Plus, it can be integrated with your other software so that people don’t have to open multiple apps or sites to complete the comparisons.
What’s The Difference Between The Draftable API and Desktop Version?
With Draftable Desktop, you can use Draftable without your files ever leaving your device. Simply add the documents to Draftable Desktop to compare them. If you want to share the results, they can be downloaded as a PDF and attached to an email.
The Draftable API can either be hosted by you or us, and it allows you to more easily share the results of your comparisons. All you’ll need to do is send a URL to other users (internal or external) to show the comparison.
There you have it: a rundown of the most frequently asked questions about Draftable. Do you have more? We’d love to answer them! Contact us today.
