Have you ever wanted to compare two documents in Microsoft Word to see the differences or similarities between them? Maybe you want to check revisions, correct errors, or sync content. Whatever your reason, Microsoft Word has features that allow you to do just that easily and quickly.
This feature is called Compare Documents and you can find it in the Review tab. With this feature, you can compare two documents and view the results in different views. You can also save, print, or send comparison results as a new document.
In this article, Bardimin will show you the steps to compare two documents in Microsoft Word with the Compare Documents feature. Bardimin will also provide some tips and tricks to maximize the use of this feature.
Step 1: Open the Document You Want to Compare
Before you can compare two documents, you must open both in Microsoft Word. You can open documents from different locations, such as your computer, OneDrive, or email. Make sure you name the document clearly so it’s easy to distinguish.
To open a document, you can use one of the following ways:
- Click File > Open and select the document you want to open.
- Right-click on the document and select Open with > Microsoft Word.
- Drag and drop the document into the Microsoft Word window.
After you open the two documents, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Select the Compare Documents Feature
To compare two documents, you must use the Compare Documents feature located in the Review tab. To access this feature, you can use one of the following ways:
- Click the Review tab and click Compare in the Compare group.
- Press Alt + R + C on your keyboard.
Once you click Compare, you’ll see two options: Compare and Combine. The Compare option will compare the two documents and show you the difference between them. The Combine option will merge two documents and show changes made by different authors.
For this article, we will use Compare options. Click Compare and you will see the Compare Documents dialog box.
Step 3: Select the Documents You Want to Compare
In the Compare Documents dialog box, you must select the documents that you want to compare. You can select a document from the drop-down list or by clicking the folder icon and browsing the document.
You must select the document in two fields: Original document and Revised document. The original is the document that you want to compare with the revised document. A revised document is a document that contains the changes you want to see.
You can also select labels for different documents by clicking the Label changes with button. This will help you identify the author of the change in the result document.
Once you have selected the documents you want to compare, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 4: Choose Comparison Settings
In the Compare Documents dialog box, you can also select the comparison settings that you want to use. You can select Settings from the drop-down list Show changes at. You can choose to show changes at the Character or Word level.
The difference between these two settings is as follows:
- If you select Character, you’ll see changes at the character level, such as addition, deletion, or replacement of letters.
- If you select Word, you’ll see word-level changes, such as word additions, deletions, or replacements.
You can also select a setting from the drop-down list Show changes in. You can choose to show changes in the Original document, Revised document, or New document.
The differences between these three settings are as follows:
- If you select Original document, you’ll see the changes in the original document, with the changes marked with a different color or symbol.
- If you select a Revised document, you’ll see the changes in the revised document, with the changes marked with a different color or symbol.
- If you select New document, you’ll see the changes in the new document, which is the result of a comparison of two documents.
In addition, you can also choose to compare certain elements of the document, such as comments, headers, footnotes, and more. You can select the elements you want to compare by checking the box below More.
Once you have selected the comparison settings you want, you can proceed to the next step.