How to Compare Two Word Documents: A Guide for Enterprise

Large scale businesses often have complex review processes. You write a document, a colleague reviews it, and finally, your boss approves it. Edits can happen in any part of this process, and it can be tough to keep track of what’s changed. If you’ve ever needed to compare files, then you know how tricky it can be. Learn how to compare two Word documents and see every single change.

Why You  Need to Know How to  Compare Two Word Documents

Let’s say your colleague sends you a report to glance over and edit. You save a copy of the Word file to retain the document history and start making changes. Later, your boss asks what you changed in the new document. Suddenly, you need to know how to compare two Word documents to find all of the changes!

There are many situations you may encounter like this. Whenever you or someone else edits another person’s work, it can be useful to see what was changed. Seeing all the differences ensures that you know exactly what’s in the final version of the document.  This applies to writing proposals, reports, customer communications, and more.

How Do I Compare Two Word Documents For Differences?

You can compare two Word documents for differences using the Draftable free online tool.

Simply find your Microsoft Word documents, upload them using the tool at https://www.draftable.com/compare, and select ‘compare’.

How To Interpret The Comparison

Changes

The output will show your two files right next to each other, with all of the changes highlighted for easy reading. The green areas denote what’s been added to the original document. The red areas are a markup of what’s been deleted in the revised document.

Change List

Instead of scrolling through to see the edits, you can view them in one list. Take a look at the list of differences and click on one to be taken to the relevant location in the document.

Formatting

You’ll be pleased to also see the formatting changes highlighted. This is useful if you’re trying to keep in line with a style guide or standard format.

Viewing Options

You have a few compare options in the compare documents window.

Click ‘View’ on the tools menu near the top of the review tab. You can change the mode from ‘Side-By-Side’ to ‘Single Document View’. This feature combines documents to view all changes in one single file.

Other comparison settings include seeing only content changes, only style changes, or both at once.

How to Compare Other File Types

Not only can this tool deal with MS Word files, but it can also compare PDF documents, text files, and PowerPoints. If you need to make a comparison between Google Docs, that’s possible too. Simply save your Google docs as Word files first - then you’ll be able to compare two Word documents.

How to Manage Contracts After Comparing Them

If you compare a lot of documents that afterwards need to be approved and signed after comparing, then you can connect Draftable with Avokaado, the best contract lifecycle management software either via the Draftable API or simply uploading them manually with a few clicks.

The Next Level Of Document Comparison

As you work for a large business, you likely have to deal with larger files that contain a lot of text. In this case, you may choose to use the desktop version of Draftable.

Many enterprises enjoy using the desktop document comparison software as this allows them to compare files without the internet. The documents never leave your computer, keeping confidential information safe. You can also export the files as password-protected PDF files for added security.

As it’s been used to compare 10+ million documents, you know that this reliable software won’t let you down.

To discuss how Draftable can best serve your enterprise, contact us today.