Comparing and Merging Microsoft Office Documents¶
There are some relatively new features in Microsoft Office that vary from version to version. There is also a third party (free) package that supports this.
We have not tried all of these methods and you may need to experiment a little to get the most out of them.
MS Power Point 2010 and Newer¶
- Review -> Compare
- Video tutorial http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=4e41f26e-23dc-4485-b047-bd42bec8d94c
- What’s New in PowerPoint 2010 – Look for Merge and compare presentations http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/what-s-new-in-powerpoint-2010-HA010336563.aspx#_Toc273966425
MS Word 2007 and Newer¶
- Review -> Compare
Excel 2007 and Newer¶
- There are preconditions!! It is complicated. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Lxrmk4NIU
Using WinMerge¶
This powerful tool is available at: http://winmerge.org/
From it's own site:
WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.
Also from it's site, the use of plugins adds more functionality, such as comparing Office files. The xdocdiff plugin, available at http://freemind.s57.xrea.com/xdocdiffPlugin/en/index.html:
With this plugin you can compare Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and some more files.
WinMerge also integrates with TortoiseSVN to provide the ability to diff files within TortoiseSVN.