How to Compare Two Versions of a Word Document

Applies to: Microsoft Word for Windows and Mac (Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019)
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-07-29

Summary

When you have Proposal_v3.docx and Proposal_final_JS.docx and no idea what actually changed between them, Word's Compare tool reads both files and builds a third document showing every difference as a tracked change. This article covers running a comparison, reading the result, tuning what Word ignores, merging two reviewers' edits with Combine, and comparing against an older version stored in OneDrive.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Word desktop for Windows or Mac. Compare does not exist in Word for the web or the mobile apps.
• Both documents saved somewhere you can browse to — a local folder, a synced OneDrive folder, or a mapped network drive.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Run Compare on Two Files

Neither file needs tracked changes. Word works out the differences on its own.

1. Open Word. You can start from a blank document or from either of the two files — the comparison does not modify whichever document is open.
2. Click the Review tab on the ribbon.
3. In the Compare group at the right-hand end of the ribbon, click Compare, then click Compare again in the small menu that drops down.
4. The Compare Documents dialog opens. It has two dropdowns side by side.
5. Under Original document on the left, click the folder icon and browse to the older version. Recently opened files also appear in the dropdown list.
6. Under Revised document on the right, click the folder icon and browse to the newer version.
7. In the Label changes with box beneath Revised document, type a name — for example Jaya v4. Every difference Word finds is attributed to this name in the result.
8. Click OK.

Note: Order matters. Word describes the differences as edits made to the original by the revised document. Swap the two files and every insertion becomes a deletion.

Verification: A new document window opens with a title such as Compare Result 1, filled with coloured, underlined, and struck-through text. Your two source files stay untouched on disk.

2. Read the Three-Pane Result

The result window looks crowded the first time. There are three regions, and each is doing a different job.

• The Revisions pane, on the left. A running list of every change Word found, with a count at the top such as 47 revisions. Click any entry to jump straight to that spot in the document. If the pane is not visible, click Review > Reviewing Pane and choose Reviewing Pane Vertical.
• The compared document, in the centre. This is the redline itself — a full copy of the original with the differences written in as tracked changes. Inserted text is underlined and coloured; deleted text is struck through; moved text is double-underlined in green.
• The source documents, stacked on the right. The upper box shows Original Document, the lower box shows Revised Document. Both are read-only previews and they scroll in sync with the centre pane, so you always see the same passage three ways.

To reclaim screen space, click Review > Compare > Show Source Documents and choose Hide Source Documents. The centre redline is the part you need; the stacked previews are context.

Tip: Press Ctrl + F6 to cycle between the panes with the keyboard rather than clicking into them.

3. Control What Compare Ignores

A default comparison flags a changed indent and a rewritten paragraph with equal weight. When the redline is drowning in formatting noise, narrow it.

1. Click Review > Compare > Compare to reopen the Compare Documents dialog.
2. Click More >> in the lower-left corner. The dialog expands to show a Comparison settings block of checkboxes.
3. Clear the checkboxes for anything you do not want reported. The ones worth switching off first:
   • Formatting — stops Word flagging font, colour, indent, and spacing differences. Clear this when you care only about wording.
   • White space — ignores differences in spaces, tabs, and blank lines. Clear this when one copy has been through a PDF round trip.
   • Case changes — ignores capitalisation-only differences, such as a heading changed to title case.
   • Headers and footers — ignores page numbers and footer text that shifted when the page count changed.
4. Under Show changes at, choose how granular the markup is:
   • Word level — a reworded sentence is shown as one deletion and one insertion. Far easier to read.
   • Character level — every altered letter is marked individually. Use it only when a single digit or code matters.
5. Under Show changes in, leave New document selected. The other two options write the markup into one of your source files.
6. Click OK to run the comparison again with the new settings.

Note: These settings persist. If a later comparison is missing differences you expected, reopen More >> and confirm nothing is still switched off from last time.

4. Save the Redline or Finalise the Text

The compare result is an unsaved document. Decide what you want out of it before you close anything.

To keep the redline as a record of what changed:

1. Press Ctrl + S in the Compare Result window.
2. Name it so its purpose is obvious — Proposal_v3_vs_v4_redline.docx beats Document1.docx.
3. Send this file to whoever asked "what changed?" They see the markup without needing both source files.

To produce a clean final document instead:

1. In the Compare Result window, click Review > Accept > Accept All Changes.
2. All markup disappears and the text becomes the revised wording.
3. Click Review > Delete > Delete All Comments in Document to strip any comments the comparison carried across.
4. Press Ctrl + S and save under a new name.

Verification: Set Display for Review on the Review tab to All Markup. If the document still looks clean, every change has been processed and the file is safe to send outside the organisation.

5. Combine Revisions from Two Reviewers

Use Combine when you sent one document to two people, both edited it, and you now have two files with two sets of tracked changes to reconcile.

1. Click Review > Compare > Combine.
2. The Combine Documents dialog opens, laid out like the Compare Documents dialog.
3. Under Original document, select the version you sent out.
4. Under Revised document, select the first reviewer's returned copy.
5. In Label unmarked changes with, type that reviewer's name so any untracked edits they made are attributed to them.
6. Click More >> and, under Show changes in, select New document.
7. Click OK. A merged document opens containing both sets of tracked changes, each in its own colour.
8. Repeat the process to fold in the second reviewer: use the merged document as Original document and the second reviewer's file as Revised document.

Note: If both reviewers changed the formatting of the same text, Word cannot keep both. A prompt appears asking which formatting to preserve — choose Your document or Other document. Word warns you before discarding anything.

Once everything is merged, work through the changes with Next, Accept, and Reject on the Review tab. See How to Accept or Remove All Track Changes in Word for the full clean-up checklist.

6. Compare Against an Older Version from OneDrive

If the document lives in OneDrive or SharePoint, you do not need a second file on disk. Version history already holds every earlier copy.

1. Open the current document from OneDrive or SharePoint in Word desktop.
2. Click File > Info, then click Version History. In some builds, the file name in the title bar is a dropdown containing Version History as well.
3. The Version History pane opens on the right, listing saved versions with a date, time, and the name of whoever saved each one.
4. Find the version you want to compare against and click Open version. It opens in a separate window, read-only, with a yellow banner across the top.
5. In that window, click File > Save a Copy (or Save As) and save it to your desktop with a name like Proposal_2026-07-14.docx.
6. Return to the current document and run Review > Compare > Compare, using the saved older copy as Original document and the current file as Revised document.

Tip: If the file is open from a synced OneDrive folder rather than downloaded from the browser, you can also right-click it in File Explorer and choose Version history to reach the same list. For the full walkthrough, see How to Restore a Previous Version of a File in OneDrive.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

Never run a comparison with Show changes in set to Original document or Revised document unless you intend to overwrite that file. Word writes the markup directly into the source document you selected. New document — the default — leaves both originals untouched.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Compare button is greyed out	Document is protected	Click Review > Restrict Editing, then click Stop Protection at the bottom of the pane. If it asks for a password you do not have, ask the document owner to unprotect their copy and resend it.
No Compare group on the Review tab	Using Word for the web or mobile	Compare is desktop-only. Download both files and open them in Word for Windows or Mac. In the web app, use File > Info > Version History to see what changed instead.
Every paragraph is flagged as changed	Whitespace or formatting differences	Reopen the dialog, click More >>, and clear Formatting and White space under Comparison settings, then run the comparison again.
"Word cannot compare documents that contain revisions"	One file has unprocessed tracked changes	Word offers to accept them for the purposes of the comparison — click Yes. Your saved files are not altered. To avoid the prompt, accept all changes in a copy of each file first.
The redline shows deletions where you expected insertions	Original and revised files were swapped	Run the comparison again with the older file under Original document and the newer file under Revised document.
Combine produced one reviewer's changes, not both	Only two files were merged	Combine handles two documents per pass. Merge reviewer one, then run Combine again using that merged file as the original and reviewer two's file as the revised.

Related Articles

• How to Track Changes in Word
• How to Accept or Remove All Track Changes in Word
• How to Restore a Previous Version of a File in OneDrive
• How to Fix Duplicate Conflict Copies of Files in OneDrive
• How to Co-Author Documents in Real Time

Did this solve your problem?