Word Compare

[mmilne]

Sometimes when comparing 2 Word documents (historical
versions of the same document saved under different file
names) Word does not pick up known changes after a certain
point in the document.
Has anyone else seen this and do you know why it happens?
Thanks

 

[Jezebel]

Word's comparison function sometimes gets lost. Consider what's going on:
Word has to establish what the two documents have in common, then report the
variations from this commonality. At times, particularly if the document is
long, it loses its 'point of reference' for making the comparison. Eg,
suppose you add a new paragraph 2 and make a change to what is now paragraph
3 -- Word has to work out at that the change in P3 is relative to the
original P2. Easy enough. But suppose the new P2 was a copy of the original
P2 ... Is P2 unchanged and P3 a new paragraph, or is P2 a new paragraph and
P3 an old paragraph, changed? At some level of complexity, Word loses it
completely and no longer knows which paragraph to compare with which.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

You didn't say which version of Word you were using. For Word 97 and 2000 MS
recommended using third-party software for document comparison of complex
documents. Direct formatting (rather than using styles) is one way to make a
document "complex."

If what you are looking for is text changes, try saving one or both of the
documents as text files. (Use Save As.) Then run your comparison. I expect
it will finish the document.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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