How to Compare Two PDF Documents with Adobe Acrobat
© Ugur Akinci
You’ve made changes to a PDF document as requested by your manager (r client) and sent it over for review.
But how can the reviewer compare the new document with the old one and decide if all the requested changes have been made?
Easy, if you’re using Adobe Acrobat Professional (i.e., “Acrobat Writer”).
1) Select Document > Compare Documents the from the menu bar to display the Compare Documents screen:
2) Select the old document and display it in the Compare (older document) field.
3) Select the new edited document and display it in the To (newer document) field.
4) Select either Page by page visual differences or the Textual differences option.
NOTE: Select the first option if there had been considerable visual changes (new screen shots, graphics, etc.). Otherwise go with textual changes option.
5) If Page by page visual differences is selected, also decide how thorough and detailed you’d like the comparison to be:
6) Select either the Side by Side Report or the Consolidated Report type.
NOTE: If the pages have shifted due to insertion of new material or deletion of old material, Side by Side Report won’t help much.
7) Click OK and generate the comparison document. Save it under a new and appropriate name.
My company uses Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard. Is there a way to compare docs in this version?
Trudy, I’m afraid you’ll need the PROFESSIONAL version for that. See: http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/pdfs/adobe/Acrobat_7_Matrix.pdf
If you had that functionality, it’d be listed under the DOCUMENT menu item. Take care. Ugur
In my version of Acrobat 9 Pro at work, the dialog box is different than what is shown here. Moreover, the side by side feature appears to generate two separate documents but I want the pages from the original and the new doc side by side within the same document. Is that possible?
Ed, you’re right. This post shows the situation with Acrobat 7. You’re correct: Acrobat 9 does have a different GUI. As to your question: you can do that in MS Word (with “View Side by Side” option in the VIEW tab) but not in Acrobat.