Best method to compare two documents ?

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solo
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Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:13 pm

Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by solo »

Hello experts,

What is the best method to compare two documents?

Let's say I have ORIGINAL.tmdx and I make edits to it saving 10 sequential versions as NEWv##.tmdx (where ## is sequential version numbering), and let's say the final document is NEWv10.tmdx.

I would like to be able to compare NEWv10.tmdx to ORIGINAL.tmdx and see the various additions/deletions so I'll know how NEWv10.tmdx has been altered from ORIGINAL.tmdx.

Tricks, tips and pointers would be most welcome.
SuperTech
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Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by SuperTech »

Currently, we don't have an automated document comparison feature in TextMaker, so you have to manually compare both the documents and look for the changes, but I have forwarded this feature request to our developers team.
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solo
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Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by solo »

SuperTech wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:17 pm Currently, we don't have an automated document comparison feature in TextMaker, so you have to manually compare both the documents and look for the changes, but I have forwarded this feature request to our developers team.
Thanks for the reply.

It would be EXTREMELY useful to have a comparison feature. It really helps with lengthy documents and in situations where there is collaberation between multiple authors and/or editors.

I wasn't thinking of something "automated" but rather an explicit action where, for example, one might use the menu to find a function like "Compare Documents", and then one can select the new document (NEWv10.tmdx" in my example) and select the old document co compare it to (ORIGINAL.tmdx in my example) and then "run" the comparison to get a result showing colour-coded adds/moves/deletions.

If this exists in TextMaker I can't find it. If it doesn't exist and that's what you've put forward to the developers, thank you.

Word for Windows has this, and it works pretty well. Word for the Mac (I'm only familiar with 2011 for the Mac) has this too, but it is not quite as well developed as the Windows version. If SoftMaker introduced this feature it will be all the more attractive and competitive (free and paid versions) as a replacement for, or alternative to, M$ Word.

Here is an example of the result of such a comparison. Red strike-through text means this text has been deleted, blue underlined text means this text has been added, black vertical lines to the left of the text indicate where changes to the text are found.

2021-02-20_18-09-26.gif
SuperTech
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Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by SuperTech »

Thanks for sharing the screenshot. As I mentioned, currently we don't have this feature and I have forwarded this feature request to our developers team.
AndiP
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Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 1:22 pm

Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by AndiP »

Hasn't this been on the "developers' list" for a few years now - it's in MS Word 2007 for goodness sake and it's a pretty basic feature for pro users.
allenm28
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Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2020 5:43 pm

Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by allenm28 »

I agree with previous comments, we are way past the time a COMPARE feature should be in this application. Word has had it for years and WPS also offers. Can we, the loyal users of Softmaker Office receive a response as to this issue from someone in charge at Softmaker
SuperTech
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Re: Best method to compare two documents ?

Post by SuperTech »

Thanks for your post. I have again forwarded this improvement suggestion to our product management.
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