Tips & Tricks

Comparing differences between PDF documents

June 23, 2005

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During a document review process, it's often necessary to compare different versions of the same document. This can be particularly time-consuming for legal documents, where a misplaced comma can make all the difference. In Acrobat, it's possible to use compare documents automatically to highlight differences between multiple versions of the same PDF document.

To make things even easier, there are two types of comparison possible with Acrobat, allowing users to choose between searching for visual and textual differences. For primarily text-based documents such as contracts, finding textual discrepancies is most important, whereas graphically-rich documents such as advertisements require the more visual approach.

Compare Documents dialog

In order to compare documents using Acrobat:

  1. In Acrobat go to Document > Compare Documents.
  2. Select the two documents you wish to compare.
  3. Choose a type of comparison (visual or textual differences).
  4. Designate a report type (for a visual comparison use the Side by Side report).
  5. Hit 'OK' and view the differences.
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