WD98: Merging Documents vs. Comparing Documents (182058)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q182058 SUMMARY
In earlier versions of Microsoft Word, you could compare two versions of a
document and "mark" the differences (Compare Documents). In Word 98
Macintosh Edition, 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 INFORMATIONCompare 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:
- Start Word, and open one of the documents for comparison (normally the
most recent or current document).
- 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.
- In the "Select File to Compare With Document" dialog box, select the
file to be compared with the current file.
- Click Open.
Unique text in the open document (text that does not appear in the other
document) is marked as inserted or new text. Unique text in the file
selected to compare with the open document is marked as deleted text.
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:
- Open one of the documents containing tracked changes.
- On the Tools menu, click Merge Documents.
- In the "Select File to Merge Into Current Document" dialog box, select a
document containing tracked changes to be merged, and click Open.
All of the tracked changes are now in the open document. Repeat steps 2-3
until you have merged tracked changes from all document copies.
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?
If you click OK, Word merges only up to the first unmarked change and
highlights it (selects it). Word does not add new material that is not
marked as inserted text. If you click Cancel, Word cancels the merge.
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.
Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 10/4/2002 |
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Keywords: | kbhowto kbproof KB182058 |
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