How to Compare Two Versions of Word Document in MS Word?

How to Compare Two Versions of Word Document in MS Word?

I was tasked to compare in MS Word Office 2007 the difference made between the two identical documents with different versions, I didn’t know what to do when I was told.  Then, my colleague came to the rescue to help me and now I would like to show how I learned in these simple steps.

Basically MS Word Office application will always be a part for those who works in an office.  One of the tool in MS Word is comparing two the same document in different version.  What I’m trying to say is, you have for an example the file you initially saved as Top 10 Qualities.docx and then you asked your friend to proof read the file for further corrections.  For sure after your friend has finished reading and editing, the file name will be saved in different format such as Top 10 Qualities_Edits.docx to easily identify between the original & with the edits.  Now how to do it? (click the photo to enlarge)

1. Open your saved MS Word file from the folder you saved it.

2.  The file will open up like this:

 

3. Then, go to the MENU bar and select REVIEW and click COMPARE as shown below.

4. After you selected the COMPARE function, there will be a pop-up box in which you will be asked to open the original document and the revised document.

For example you saved the original file as Top 10 Qualities-1.docx and the revised as Top 10 Qualities-2.docx.

5. Now you have selected the two documents, hit the OK button and see what happens.

As you can see it showed the difference between the two versions. Finally, you can COMBINE them after it has been finalized to come up for the final revision of the document.

Hope it helps!