How to compare 2 docs in WORD

How to compare easily two versions of the same Word document? If several persons work on the same document, it’s necessary to manage and organize its editing. While collecting all change proposals it’s good to use the word function Track changes. There are also some smart tools for collaboration which help you to avoid having two or more versions of the same document. But what to do if it happens anyway? To compare two versions of the same document by yourself (without any special tool) it’s not easy and almost impossible. WORD has a built-in function for this case! This function could be very useful, if you missed to activate Track Changes. A tip for power users: You can use this function also to compare other text files like results of SQL-queries, comma/tabulator separated values (CSV/TSV) and so on.

1. Open WORD on your computer and go to the ribbon tab Review. In the section Compare select the menu item Compare.

2. Choose your documents in the section 1 as original and in the section 2 as revision. If you already opened the related documents you can select them in the drop-down menus. Otherwise you have to use the directory icons (Open).
   The base for the comparison of these two documents is the original document. You can exchange these two documents with the green arrows (3) if you interchanged them while selecting.

 

You can change the search for differences by additional settings. Please click on More and finally confirm with OK.

3. Then you will get listed all differences.

On the left you can see the list of all differences.
In the middle you can see all changes in the context.
At the right side you will get shown the original text (in the upper section) and the revised version (in the section below).