If you email a contract to two different business partners, and they both make edits and email their unique versions back to you, you are suddenly faced with three separate Microsoft Word documents. Manually opening all three files on your screen and visually scanning every single line to find their changes is a nightmare. Instead, you can use the powerful “Combine Revisions” tool to instantly merge all of the edited documents into a single, color-coded master file.
How the Combine Engine Works
The Combine tool is an advanced feature hidden within the Review tab. It mathematically analyzes the raw text of an “Original” document against a “Revised” document. It identifies every single added word, deleted sentence, and formatting change, and merges them together using standard Track Changes markup (red strikethroughs and underlines) so you can easily accept or reject the edits.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Open Microsoft Word. You do not need to open any specific document yet; simply start with a blank page.
- In the top menu ribbon, click on the Review tab.
- On the far right side of the ribbon, click the Compare button.
- A small dropdown menu will appear. Select Combine…
A new dialogue box will open, split into two distinct sections.
- In the left section labeled Original document, click the tiny folder icon and select the untouched, original master file from your hard drive.
- In the right section labeled Revised document, click the folder icon and select the file that your partner edited and sent back to you.
- Click OK.
Reviewing the Merged File
Microsoft Word will instantly generate a brand new, fourth document. The screen will be split into panels.
The large central panel is your newly merged master document. Every single change your partner made will be highlighted in red ink. If they deleted a word, it will have a red strikethrough. If they added a sentence, it will be underlined in red.
You can now use the Accept and Reject buttons located in the Review tab to systematically approve or deny every single edit, allowing you to rapidly finalize complex legal contracts without missing a single altered comma.