If multiple people have been editing a document and forgot to turn on “Track Changes,” figuring out exactly what was added, deleted, or modified can be a nightmare. Fortunately, Microsoft Word includes a built-in comparison tool that can analyze two different documents side-by-side and automatically highlight every single difference.
How to Use the Compare Documents Tool
Before you begin, make sure you know exactly where both the “Original” document and the “Revised” document are saved on your computer.
- Open Microsoft Word. You can start with a blank document or open one of the files you want to compare.
- Click on the Review tab in the ribbon menu at the top of the screen.
- Look for the “Compare” group on the far right side of the ribbon and click the Compare button.
- From the dropdown menu, select Compare… (Compare two versions of a document (legal blackline)).
- A dialogue box will appear. On the left side, under “Original document,” browse for and select the original file.
- On the right side, under “Revised document,” browse for and select the edited file.
- Click the More button at the bottom of the window to configure exactly what Word should look for (e.g., changes in formatting, case, or white space). If you only care about text changes, leave the defaults.
- Click OK.
Understanding the Results
Word will generate a brand new, third document. It will not modify your original files.
The screen will split into multiple panes. The main center pane will show the combined document with all changes highlighted in red. Text that was deleted by the reviewer will be struck through, and new text will be underlined.
You can use the “Revisions” pane on the left side of the screen to quickly jump through every single change sequentially. Once you have reviewed the differences, you can save this new “Compared” document as its own separate file.