Finding Text Changes in Word

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Finding Text Changes in Word

When someone else returns your Word document to you, it's a cinch to have Word compare the "new" document with your pristine original. Word can flag any changes, displaying them for you right on the screen. Here's how:

1. Make sure that you have the edited (newer) document loaded and on the screen. The original document should be saved to your hard disk. You don't need to open it. Just open the edited document and have it on the screen in front of you.
2. Choose Tools, Track Changes, Compare Documents (in Word 2000); Choose Tools, Compare and Merge Documents (in Word 2002). Find and select the original document on your hard drive.
3. Click the Open button (Word 2000); Compare button (Word 2002). Word thinks long and hard. What it's doing is comparing the document on the screen with the older copy on your hard disk.
4. Peruse the changes. Word 2000:  If you can't see any changes, go to your toolbar and choose Tools, Track Changes, Highlight Changes. Put a check mark by Highlight Changes on Screen; then click OK. Word 2002:  If you can't see any changes, look at the new toolbar that opened up when you did the compare.  on the far left should be a box that will probably say "Final."  Change it to "Final Showing Markup" and the changes will appear.

Ah-ha, the revision-marked-up result! The edited document on your screen is littered with revision marks, showing exactly what changes were made from the original.

Any new text added appears underlined. Text deleted appears crossed out (the strikethrough-text effect). Unchanged text remains the same.

Source: Dummies.com