How to Compare Two Documents in Word

By cyberneto

If you want to compare two paragraphs in Word, there are a few simple ways to do it. One of them involves using the Page Layout menu tab. From there, select Comparison and choose to save the compared document as a separate file. Once you have a comparison between two paragraphs, you can save it to be used later.

Page Layout menu tab

The column option in the page layout menu tab is an effective way to compare two blocks of text or images in Word. You can quickly apply changes and remove them when you’re finished. To use this feature, you first need to arrange the content in Word so that one item is above the other, and then use the columns dialog to change the layout.

When you’re creating a document, you can choose the page margins you want. Word provides preset margins, ranging from half an inch to one and a half inches. You can also set custom margins by using the Margins menu. Among these options are Normal, Mirror, and Inside. Normal is a popular setting and is perfect for documents with one or two facing pages. Depending on your needs, you can also use Outside or Inside margins to create the same look on both sides of the page.

Next, you can add headers and footers. Headers and footers are available on the Insert tab and are used to add extra features to your document. Commonly, people use this feature to add tables, pictures, clip art, shapes, page numbers, and illustrations. There are seven groups of related commands in the Insert tab. Similarly, you can change the look of your document using the Page Layout tab.

The Page Layout tab offers various other features that are useful for making changes in Word. You can choose how to set the page’s margins, the orientation, and how many columns you want to include. You can also adjust the spacing between lines and adjust the font size.

Another option in the page layout menu tab is to choose how to break up your text. For example, if the first paragraph has a table, you can keep the next paragraph. Alternatively, you can force a table to start on a new page.

The Page Layout menu tab also allows you to adjust the page size. The margin size is the space between the text and the edge of the page. You can choose one of the preset margins or set a custom margin. There are also two options for page orientation, the Normal, and the Narrow.

If you need more than three columns, you can use the More Columns option. This option will open a new window where you can control the number of columns. In addition, you can control where a column breaks by adjusting the “Number of columns” text box.

Comparison

Comparing a word document line by line can be tedious and time-consuming. However, it can highlight the differences between two documents. Although the comparison function of Microsoft Word does not allow for comprehensive comparisons, there are third-party apps that can help you make the process simpler. These applications use blacklines to display changes between two documents.

In Word, the default setting for the compare tool is to display similar documents with no changes. However, you can change this by clicking the “More” button and choosing the search criteria you need. For example, if you want to compare paragraphs that are similar but differ in word usage, you must change some formatting settings in Word.

Saving compared document as separate file

In the Compare Documents feature, you can easily identify differences between two versions of the same document. This helps you to ensure that no changes have been made without your permission. The tool opens two side-by-side panes, where you can drag the files to compare. If the document has changed, you can choose to reload the file or ignore the changes.

The “Compare Documents” dialog box will list the documents that have been compared. You must open the original document first. To do so, click the “Open” button on the right-hand side of the drop-down menu and select the “Browse…” command at the bottom. You should then see the original document and the revised document in the drop-down menu.

The difference block shows lines in the source file that are different. The default color for the differences is gold. If there are blank lines, they are marked as deleted differences. You can also check the box that says Ignore blank lines in the Options dialog. The last difference block shows two lines in the source document.

If you don’t want to save the compared document as a new file, you can also choose to save it as a new document. Word will create a new document that reflects all the differences between the two documents. Once you have compared the documents, you can edit the new document to make any necessary changes.

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