WD97: Merging Documents vs. Comparing Documents

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

In earlier versions of Microsoft Word, you could compare two versions of a document and "mark" the differences (Compare Documents). In Word 97, you can merge the tracked changes from several copies of a document into one document (Merge Documents).

The Compare Documents and Merge Documents commands are quite different, but may be confused because of the location of the commands and their names. This article contains a brief explanation of their differences.

MORE INFORMATION

Compare Documents

The Compare Documents command marks all of the differences between two documents, using the current Track Changes settings. To compare documents, follow these steps:

1. Start Word, and open one of the documents for comparison (normally the most recent or current document).

2. On the Tools menu, point to Track Changes and click Compare Documents.

   NOTE: There should be no tracked changes in either document at the start of the process.

3. In the "Select File to Compare With Document" dialog box, select the file to be compared with the current file.

4. Click Open.

Merge Documents

The Merge Documents command merges tracked changes in several copies of the same document. After you have edited each copy of the document, you can merge all of the tracked changes into one document for final editing.

NOTE: To track changes in each copy of the document, point to Track Changes on the Tools menu, click Highlight Changes, and then click to select the "Track changes while editing" check box.

To merge marked changes, follow these steps:

1. Open one of the documents containing tracked changes.

2. On the Tools menu, click Merge Documents.

3. In the "Select File to Merge Into Current Document" dialog box, select a document containing tracked changes to be merged, and click Open.

NOTE: If there are any differences in the documents that have not been marked as tracked changes (unmarked changes) the merge stops at that point and Word displays the message:

   The merged documents contain unmarked changes. Do you want to merge
   up to the first untracked change?

At this point you can either compare these documents using the Compare Documents command, or mark all differences between the copies as tracked changes, to successfully complete the merge.