Document toolboxDocument toolbox

Comparing documents

Owned by Matthew Lynch (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 05 Feb 2024 by Edward Griffiths
2 min read

You can compare two document versions in a project to create a new version showing the differences as tracked changes.

How to compare documents

  1. On the Project tab, find the document version that contains the most recent changes and select "Compare version" from the Actions menu next to it.

  2. In the 'Compare document versions' dialogue box, select the significant, working or snapshot document version you want to compare it to.

  3. You can provide a name for this new compared document or one will be assigned automatically.

  4. Click Compare.

A new document version will be created, in the folder “Compare” containing the comparison between the two documents.

  • You can use the Compare function as an alternative to working with Tracked Changes turned on.

  • Note that if you have generated a PDF with line numbering for one or both of the versions you are comparing, you will see erroneous tracked changes in the resulting comparison document. This is due to the way that line numbering information is stored within the XML of document versions in Lawmaker. To create a comparison between versions where line numbering info has been added, use the Duplicate version action from the Actions menu next to each version, and ensure the option to ‘Strip out page/line numbers’ is ticked. The resulting duplicate versions can then be compared, and the comparison will not contain any erroneous tracked changes.

  • The logic works best if you select 'Compare version' on the newer document version and then select the older version to compare it with in the dialogue box.

  • You can compare documents that are significant versions, working versions or snapshot versions or a mixture.

  • This feature works best if the changes between the documents aren't too significant as there are some known limitations which will be refined for a later release:

    • If you insert or delete a quoted structure, the text before it will also be marked up in an insert/delete tracked change due to the way the XML is constructed.  We will refine this logic in future so that only the quoted structure is marked as inserted/deleted.

    • Moving provisions around the document can create more tracked changes than expected due to the changes occurring behind-the-scenes in the XML.  We have caught the main provisions but there are some that are likely to need further refinement.  One example of this limitation is moving definitions around in a list: this tends to result in lots of tracked changes appearing within the list of definitions and we will be working on refining this in future.  If you spot anything similar when moving different provisions around your document, please report it to us.

  • It's possible to accept/reject changes using the 'Review' right-hand panel in your compare document version if required.

  • You can move 'compare' documents into other folders.