Put the older draft in Original text and the newer draft in Changed text in Text Compare. Start with a comparison that keeps case, punctuation and spacing significant. You can then hide differences you have decided do not matter.
Choose a useful comparison unit
| Unit | Useful for | What a replacement looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Paragraphs and ordinary prose | Removed words beside added words |
| Lines | Lists, code and table-like text | An old line and its replacement |
| Characters | A short code or small wording change | Individual character differences |
| Sentences | Reviewing complete sentences | A removed sentence and an added sentence |
For example, changing The total is 14 units. to The total is 15 units. is easy to inspect in Words mode. Lines mode marks the complete line. Neither result explains whether 15 is the correct total; check that against the source of the figure.
Reduce noise without hiding an edit
Ignore letter case makes Total and total equivalent. Ignore punctuation differences removes punctuation before comparison, so leave it off when a comma, decimal point or quotation mark matters.
Spacing behaves differently by unit. In Words, Characters and Sentences, ignoring spacing collapses whitespace runs. In Lines, it removes trailing spaces and reduces long blank-line runs; indentation and spaces inside a line can still differ. Context can show zero to ten unchanged lines around a line change.
A UTF-8 text file can replace the pasted text on either side. Each file is limited to 400,000 bytes, and the selected comparison mode's combined text limit still applies.
Compare document text or a rendered PDF page
Compare PDF and Word Text accepts two PDF or DOCX files, up to 100 MiB each and 200 MiB combined. PDFs are limited to 100 pages each. Stored-text mode reads available text, with tighter limits on expanded DOCX content. It does not perform OCR, and extraction order can differ from the order you see in columns.
Its Rendered PDF page mode compares one matching page number in two PDFs. This can reveal visual changes that a text comparison misses. Font rendering and anti-aliasing can also produce differences, and the threshold can hide smaller changes. Treat the result as a review aid rather than proof that two documents are equivalent.
Check a move in its new context
A passage moved from section 3 to section 7 can appear as a large removal and addition. Read both locations. Confirm that the words, surrounding qualifications and references still make sense. The tool does not record authorship, accept tracked changes or judge a change's meaning.
If copied layout creates false differences, use Remove Extra Spaces and Line Breaks on copies first. Joining wrapped lines can also join separate list items, so inspect the cleaned text before using it.
When a comparison stops early
Combined limits are 50,000 characters for Characters, 300,000 for Words or Sentences, and 400,000 for Lines. Line comparisons also allow 20,000 lines per side. Edit and time budgets can stop highly different inputs, and long output is shortened. Compare smaller corresponding sections when this happens; a shortened result is not a complete review of both documents.