I would never need to use this if I had one of my 20 different versions of my resume.

In this post, I’ll show you how to use two features of resume software to quickly find differences between two documents and merge them if you like. One feature is the “differences” tab, which lets you see how different the document’s font, color, and layout are. The other is the “merge” tab, which lets you choose whether to merge all of the differences or just some of them. To use these features, first open both documents in your favorite resume software. Then click on the “differences” tab in one document and click on the “merge” tab in the other document. You’ll see a list of all of the differences between the two documents. You can then select which ones you want to merge by clicking on one of them.

Compare & Combine Documents

The Compare tool allows you to compare the latest resume written in 2013 with the 2007 resume.

This will bring up the Compare Documents dialog box where you need to pick your original document and revised document.

You can choose to show all the changes in a new document or just the changes that have been made to this one. By default, it will also show all the changes in a document that has been opened.

The first section of the document is a scrollable list of revisions. This list will show the changes that have been made to the document since it was last saved. The second section of the document is a combined document, which shows all changes that have been made to both the original document and any revisions that have been made to it. The final section of the document is a list of all revisions, which will show which revision was made to which original document. ..

As you can see here, I’ve deleted a few things and inserted a couple of other lines of text. If you double-click on any of the headings (Aseem Kishore Inserted or Aseem Kishore Deleted), it will move the cursor to that exact position in the document.

The revisions in the document are as follows:

  • Strike-throughs are what have been deleted and underlined are what have been added to the revised document.
  • Green has been moved around and is shown as double strike-through green.

The original document is at the top and the revised document is below. As you scroll the top document, the bottom one follows along so that they are in sync. You can scroll the bottom one independently of the top screen, though.

In addition to this view, you can also remove both the source documents from the right pane and instead show balloons to easily see the changes. To see what I mean, go ahead and click on the Compare button again, then on Show Source Documents and finally click on Hide Source Documents.

Now click on the Show Markup button under Tracking and click on Balloons and then Show Revisions in Balloons.

On the right hand side of the document, you’ll now see all the revisions with lines coming from the document. This can make it easier to see all the changes if you have a lot of them. ..

The differences between the two documents are stark. The first document, which is a copy of a government document, is filled with errors and has been changed many times. The second document, which is a copy of a company document, is clean and accurate.

If you have made changes to a document and want to keep them, you can save it with Combine. This will give you the same dialog where you have to choose the original and revised document.

Once you make the changes, you’ll see the same layout as before where you see the combined changes in the middle. Again, strikeout text is deleted, red underlined text is added and green text has been moved. Just right-click on each change and choose whether to accept or reject each change. When you are done, save the new combined document.

Word has a new feature called “Track Changes” that lets you see who made changes to a document, when they made the changes, and what they changed. This is really helpful if you’re working on a document with several people and want to make sure everyone’s edits are all together. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy! ..