Can I compare two versions of a presentation to find the changes?

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WJ

I need to check parts of a set of presentations that have been updated into a
number of new versions. While Track Changes would be good, scrolling with two
parallel windows synchronised would also help. Any ideas if there is an
efficient way to do this? CTRL-Tab switches from one window to another but
that is the only thing I have found so far.
 
WJ

You don't mention what version of powerpoint


powerpoint 2002/2008

Window menu > arrange all (is one option)


Cheers
TAJ Simmons
Microsoft Powerpoint MVP

http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
awesome - powerpoint templates,
powerpoint backgrounds, free samples, ppt tutorials...
 
I started to build a tool to do this, but it became too convoluted too
quickly.

For instance, just inserting a blank slide as #1 makes all the slides
"different" (slide 3 compared to slide 3 in the other presentation) when
they are really just offset by 1 (slide 2 is the same as slide 3).

Grouping two items makes the presentations different, but appear the exact
same.

So I started to do a "appear" the same mode that just looked at the
appearance differences (ignoring the structure that makes it look that way),
but that got complicated also when trying to report differences by pixel.
It also ignored the builds, which are an important part of the
presentations.

What it boiled down to metaphorically, is that while three plus three is
equal to eight minus two in math (appearance), it isn't in English
(structure).

The human brain is better at identifying and comparing new patterns that
code has to be taught to see The side by side comparison that TAJ
recommended is the best option at this time.

--
Bill Dilworth

vestprog2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
yahoo. They answer most of our questions.
com www.pptfaq.com
..
 
Adobe Acrobat (Pro, not Adobe Reader) is a good tool for this kind of thing.
Print both files as PDF, then use the Compare Documents feature (on the
Documents tab in Acrobat 7.0 -- not sure where it is in more recent
versions).
 
I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning at PPTLive '07 that you
could use Adobe to use compare if you have the full version. Hang on it may
be written down somewhere.... Ah yes:
If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (i.e. not just the reader) you
can use pdf compare. Create pdf of slides first (ensuring the 2 ppts have
the same number of slides) then use Advanced à Compare Documents. For more
info see:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat...t=WS09D04D24-A9FA-416b-9FBC-6188AC2160FF.html



Lucy
 
What's it they say about great minds?

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au



Echo S said:
Adobe Acrobat (Pro, not Adobe Reader) is a good tool for this kind of
thing. Print both files as PDF, then use the Compare Documents feature (on
the Documents tab in Acrobat 7.0 -- not sure where it is in more recent
versions).

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx


WJ said:
I need to check parts of a set of presentations that have been updated
into a
number of new versions. While Track Changes would be good, scrolling with
two
parallel windows synchronised would also help. Any ideas if there is an
efficient way to do this? CTRL-Tab switches from one window to another
but
that is the only thing I have found so far.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
That's a fair point - it won't pick up on changes to animations or
transitions. However, my understanding is that it will pick up on changes to
text, images, etc which is certainly a big step towards what I thought the
OP was after.

Lucy
 
As others have suggested if you have the full version of Acrobat Pro you can
compare, following are my findings.
1) Do NOT print multiple slides per page, printing handouts is the only
option that will allow you to print multiple slides per page. If you print
handouts then select the option to print one up. If you print multiple
slides per page the compare will be worthless.

I ran a quick test using handouts - 6 up and it became impossible to really
compare the two. Example let's say that in the new file I insert a new slide
after slide 2. From this point forward you will get a mismatch based on the
total page, e.g. slide 4 in the new file is really slide 3 in the old file
and slide 5 in the new
file is really slide 4 in the old file, etc.

2) The compare is limited to 250 pages but you can specify the slide range
thus for my 800 slide set I first run 1-250, then 251-500, then 501-750 and
751-800, somewhat of a pain but workable.

NOTE: The first slide in each set should have the same content, just to make
things easy for you. Example, let's say I know that I've added some slides
and made changes to several but this was limited to the slides between
50-75. Thus slides 1-49 are the same in both sets, thus I specify my range
for the compare as 50-75 for both sets. Since I added a few slides

3) When you run the compare, two temp PDF files are created ("Compare New"
and "Compare Old" you can save these if you want). You really need to bounce
between the two, if you have a monitor that will allow you to display them
side-by-side this will be super helpful. Through the color coding that Adobe
uses you can detect slides that were added to the new file (you see this in
the "Compare New" file as a blue block in the upper left corner of the page)
slides that were deleted from the old file (you see this in the "Compare
Old" file as a grayish block in the upper left corner of the page).

When Adobe sees a difference it is flagged by a color code and a comment. It
takes a bit of practice to understand exactly what your are being told and
it is really helpful if you can see the two files side-by-side and manually
keep them in-sync as you scroll.

I'm still in the learning process so some of my comments may not be 100%
correct but they are close. I highly suggest you play with a small file set.
As my test file I had 100 slides but I made all my changes in the first 20
just to make it small and quick. Depending on the speed of your PC you might
want to make the test files smaller.

I was able (with practice) detect
- inserted slides
- deleted slides
- text deletions
- text that was added
- text word changes
- font changes

Sometimes Adobe is a little confused and the resulting reported change is
bogus, but with a little practice you can easily work around this.
 
Just in case you don't have Acrobat, and you just want to compare the text, I
have a tip on my site for extracting all the text in a presentation (even
text in text boxes), using a free PDF creator:
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpointtips/powerpoint_tip_export_all_presentation_text.html.
There I suggest bringing the text into Notepad but you could bring it into
Word, which has a Compare Documents feature.

For presentations with just bulleted text, you can choose File>Send
To>Microsoft Office Word. In the dialog box, choose the Outline Only option
and click OK. Again, you can then use the Compare Documents feature in Word.

Ellen Finkelstein
 
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