How to Compare Two Word Documents: 2 Easiest Ways

Comparing two Word documents side-by-side is required for many scenarios. You may have two versions of a business proposal, one written by you and the other updated by your colleague. So, you want to look at what changes your colleague made. Similarly, you may want to compare draft and final versions of reports, different versions of a contract, and similar others.

It is now easier than ever to compare two Word documents. In this guide, we present two ways to compare and spot differences between the two Word documents autonomously.

Part 1. How Do I Compare Two Word Documents for Differences? - The Default Method

Microsoft Word has a built-in "Compare" feature that allows you to compare 2 Word documents for differences. It will automatically detect the changes in the content. It can compare changes in text, images, tables, formatting, headers/footers, fields, and more. Furthermore, you can view the differences within the original/revised document or generate a new comparison document.

Follow the below steps to learn how to compare two Word documents using the default method:

Step 1. Launch Word and open a new blank document.

Step 2. Under the "Review" tab from the top, click Compare > Compare….

Step 3. A pop-up window of Compare Documents will appear. Here, select the original and revised documents. Also enter the writer's name in the "Label changes with" to better distinguish the changes.

To customize the comparison settings, click the "More" button. Afterward, check or uncheck the comparison settings. Also, choose whether you want the comparison to generate a new document or show the comparison in the original or revised document. Once done, click "OK".

That's it! You will notice Word instantly providing a detailed comparison of two documents. Furthermore, it will have synchronized scrolling to visualize changes easily. This way, you can compare two Word documents directly from Microsoft Word.

Part 2. How Can I Compare Two Word Documents at the Same Time? - A Modernized Method

Other than using Word, you can also compare two Word documents in a more modernized way with UPDF.

UPDF is an AI-driven powerful document reader and editor tool. It provides a modernized interface for comparing two Word or PDF documents and highlighting all the differences. It can detect changes in text, images, path, shading, and other document elements and present them nicely in a colorful interface.

The unique aspects of UPDF compared to Word are as follows:

• It can compare selective pages from the two documents.
• It provides more colorful comparison results for a better understanding of differences.
• It allows you to filter the comparison output based on text, image, path, shading, and page. This support is available in Word only before initiating the comparison.

All the above differences make UPDF shine as a modernized and more advanced tool to compare two Word documents.

Here's how to compare 2 Word documents for differences with the modernized approach of UPDF:

Step 1. Save the Word document as a PDF file.

Step 2. Install and launch UPDF on your Windows/Mac computer. From the home screen, select the "PDF Tools" tab and click "Compare Files".

Step 2. Select the old and new files you want to compare.

Note: You have to first convert the Word files to PDF and then select their PDF versions.

Adjust the page range and customize the other filters. Once done, click "Compare".

Step 3. Within seconds, UPDF will provide the comparison result. It will open both files side-by-side and pinpoint all the changes between the two.

It will also intelligently identify specific changes in the images, path, and shading.

You can also click the "Filter" option at the top to filter the comparison by text, images, pages, and other criteria.

Step 4. To export the comparison result, click the "Export" button and specify the location on your PC where you want to save it.

That's it! This way, UPDF offers the easiest yet powerful way to compare two Word documents effortlessly.

Want to give it a try? Click the download button below to get UPDF right now and begin comparing documents.

Part 3. Bonus: What Can UPDF Do Beyond Comparing Two Word Documents?

UPDF is an all-in-one PDF editor. This means that you can do a lot more with UPDF beyond comparing two Word documents. Here's the list of other features you can access with UPDF:

• PDF Creation: You can create PDFs from scratch or convert Word, Excel, PPT, image, and other file types to PDF.
• PDF Reading: You get the best PDF reading experience with multiple page layout and scrolling options along with light/dark mode.
• PDF Editing: You can edit the PDF's text, images, path, headers/footers, links, background, and more.
• PDF Annotating: You can highlight, strikethrough, mark, draw, underline, or add stickers/sticky notes, etc.
• PDF AI Assistance: You get a desktop and online UPDF's AI Assistant to chat with PDFs. You get an AI chatbot to get assistance in summarizing, translating, explaining, writing/rewriting, and more. You can also use it to chat with images.
• PDF Compress: You can shrink PDF's size to lower the overall size of large PDFs.
• PDF Conversion: You can convert a PDF to other formats, including image, Word, PPT, RTF, Excel, CSV, and more.
• PDF Protection: You can protect a PDF by password encryption or redacting sensitive information.
• PDF OCR: You can convert image-based or scanned PDFs into editable PDFs with OCR scan.
• PDF Organization: You can add, remove, crop, split, rotate, extract, replace, and rearrange PDF pages.
• PDF Fill & Sign: You can fill PDF forms and insert digital/electronic signs.
• PDF Batch Process: You can encrypt, insert, print, combine, or convert multiple PDFs.
• PDF Cloud Storage: You can store PDFs in secure cloud storage for anywhere accessibility.
• PDF to Mind Map: You can convert PDFs to mind maps with one click for better understanding.

Overall, UPDF is a comprehensive PDF tool that can serve as your best day-to-day companion in PDF-related activities.

What are you thinking more? Head to the UPDF pricing page, choose the right plan and start using UPDF today.

Conclusion

When there are two versions of a Word document, the need to compare often emerges. As discussed above, the Word's built-in Compare feature provides an intuitive way to compare two Word documents autonomously. However, you can get a more modernized experience with UPDF, which even supports selective page comparison. So, the final choice is yours. No matter which approach you use, it is highly recommended to install UPDF, as it offers a powerful toolkit to handle PDFs proficiently.