Comparing and Combining Documents

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

JMC — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:46:19 GMT

Modified pictures are not detected by the compare function.

Are there other limits in this process ?

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

bemini — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:26:00 GMT

I'd like to see answer to petegrille33. And if there is a way to revert back or recover the original after its been saved, in the event D's version is the one that should have won.

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

petesgrille33 — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:51:44 GMT

This is all great news, but there's an important point that may be overlooked- especially when combining 3 or more documents (as Mona mentioned). What is Word to do when multiple editors have edited(differently) the exact same word in the source doc? Whose edit makes it into the final version?

Yes, you can combine doc A and doc B, resave as doc C. Then combine doc C with doc D, save. Move on to doc E, etc.

You'd have to save your "favorite" editor for last in this sequence, though.

Example: editor A changes "good" to "best." Then editor B changes "good" to "spectacular." In the comparison doc, editor B's edit 'wins' over editor A's. Then, editor C comes along- he has changed "good" to "wonderful." His edit now wins over editor B. And this will continue until the last editor's changes are incorporated. Editor Z's edit will remain in the final document, even if he made the mistake of changing "good" to "terrible."

Any ideas how to overcome this?

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

Litera Corp — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 05:25:23 GMT

Well Sharing information on Comparing Documents. Very Nice review.

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

wrdblog — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:44:42 GMT

Hi Richard – Unfortunately not. We removed Word’s versioning feature in the 2007 edition. Checkout the following link for more info: office.microsoft.com/.../HA102193321033.aspx -Jonathan(MS)

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

Richard — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:44:54 GMT

You say "The 'version' related buttons in screen shot above is feature of Word 2007 that becomes available when working with documents stored on SharePoint 2007." is there a way to get this fuctionality without SharePoint, I would like to be able to make changes to a document and keep different versions, as you could in 2003, is that possible in 2007?

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

dmahugh — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:37:35 GMT

@Alex, this post explains the magic that allows Word to know which changes came from which editing session:

blogs.msdn.com/.../what-s-up-with-all-those-rsids.aspx If you're tracking changes when you edit, then there's even more information included in the XML stream, including the user name and a timestamp.

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

wrdblog — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:36:49 GMT

Great question Mona. You are correct, the combine dialog only allows you to combine two documents. In the ‘send the document to 10 people scenario’ you can use combine to on the first two versions you get back, save the “Combined Document”, and then combine that combined document with the third version you get back…and so on until the 10th version is combined. -Jonathan (MS)

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

Mona — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:17:08 GMT

Well, you say “Combine: You send a document to 10 people. You need to know exactly who did what”. But I don’t understand how can I combine 10 documents, while the Combine Documents dialog box enables me to open only two (original & revised)? Thanks a lot

Mona

re: Comparing and Combining Documents

Alex — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:48:09 GMT

This has always been a mystery to me. I send a docx to A and B. Both edited and I combine. How then could Word tell whether a paragraph is added by A or deleted by B? Yet a handful of experiements show that apparently Word can really distinguish between the two...