Compare and merge documents (2003)

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Hi all,

I have two versions of a document, a new and old. Basically, what I am trying to do is to take the old version and then merge all of the changes of the new version into the old version so that I do not have to keep flipping between the two in order to look at all of the changes. How do I do this?

When I tried Tools/Compare and Merge documents, Word created a new document that tracked all of the differences between the two documents. If the new version replaced a word from the old version, it would strike out the old word in red and then put in the new in blue.

However, when the new version would just add in new paragraphs or words, Word does not put that in blue. Rather, it puts it in red strikethrough. I don’t want the stuff in the new version to look like it was from the old and then deleted; I want it to look like it was added.

I don’t know why Word is doing this. It is taking anything from either document that was not in the other and then putting it in red strikethrough. I want the new stuff to look like insertions!

Any clues??

JMT

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The Merge button in the dialog in which you select the other document has a little dropdown arrow to the right of it. If you click this, you’ll be offered three options: Merge, Merge into current document and Merge into new document. Play with these options to see if there is one that suits your needs.

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It appears that all of them have the same result . . .

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I think you might have to work in the counter-intuitive order: open the new document and then compare with the original, rather than the other way around. Does that work?

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I tried it both ways. Same result each time.

But when I did the same thing with smaller test documents, it worked fine when I started with the new version, merged the old into it, and selected “merge into new document.” Maybe it’s becasue the documents I am working with are too large?

In the large one, it is asking if I want to keep the formattng of the old or new document. Either way, the result is not what I want. With the small test docs, no such question even pops up.

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This is why there is a healthy market for third party comparison products.

Sorry, this feature is weak and other than comparing it in smaller parts — e.g., separate files — I can’t think of any further workarounds.

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Well, I hate to admit it, but I think you are right, jscher, since it seems to work with smaller documents. But that’s not so bad, since the excerpt I need is only 1/3 of the document I was using before.

Thanks,

JMT

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Hi Jefferson
Can you point me toward any of the third party solutions to which you refer? [indent]

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healthy market for third party comparison products

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[/indent] T.I.A.

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These are the principal products I hear about:

Workshare Deltaview from Workshare Technologies
http://www.workshare.com/products/wsdeltaview/%5B/url%5D

Long available only through site licensing the company has bowed to demand and introduced individual licensing. Prices are, um, not low, but people say this is the gold standard. An upmarket product named Workshare Professional has been introduced, but I don’t understand the differences.

Diff Doc from SoftInterface
http://www.softinterface.com/MD/Document-C…on-Software.htm%5B/url%5D

Program caught on when LEXIS-NEXIS discontinued CompareRite and Workshare was charging a fortune. Prices are about the same as for Deltaview.

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Thank you Jefferson

I will have a closer look at both of these products.

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