Compare Documents in Word 2010

In this chapter, we will discuss how to compare documents in Word 2010. Sometime you modify a Microsoft Word document without turning on the Track Changes mode; in such cases, tracking the changes becomes difficult and you will have to compare the original document with the modified document word by word. But you do not need to compare it manually, Microsoft Word provides an option to compare two documents very easily. Let us see how it can be done.

Compare Two Documents

Let us have the following two documents, (a) Original document (b) Modified version of the same document as follows

Original Document

Modified Document

The following steps will help you compare the two documents.

Step 1 − Click the Review tab and then click the Compare button. This will display the two options to be selected.

Step 2 − Select the Compare option simply by clicking over it. This will display a Compare Documents dialog box asking for the two versions of the Word document that need to be compared with each other.

Step 3 − Select the Original Document and the Revised Document and click the OK button to display the differences in two documents. Left column on the screen would show all the changes done over the course of changes and you will see original as well as modified version of the document on the same screen. You can walk through these changes using the Previous & Next button available under the Review tab.

NOTE − While comparing two documents you can use the different settings available at the Compare Documents dialog box under the More button.