I have always used "compare and merge documents" under Tools in the standard
toolbar to compare 2 Word documents. The result of this function would show
me the latest changes between the doucments. However, this is no longer
working for me since I got a different computer. Now it shows me all
document changes from the creation of the original document. I have been
upgraded to Microsoft Office Word 2003. Is there a setting that I don't
have set correctly? Any help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks.
Diane F

Hi Diane

There are two possibilities here.

First, Compare and Merge sometimes gets very confused and marks differences
that you and I would not see as a difference.

Second (and perhaps more likely here) is this. In the past, you had a
document that contained track changes. But you could not see those tracked
changes, because the display of tracked changes was not turned on. In Word
97, for example, it was quite easy to live with a document that contained
tracked changes, and unless you explicitly went looking for them, you'd
never see them.

Word uses the track changes functionality to do a Compare and Merge. When
you do the Compare and Merge, your old document still has all those old
tracked changes in it, and the result of the Compare and Merge shows both
the old tracked changes *and* any differences between the documents.

The solution is to accept all the tracked changes in your old document
*before* you do the Compare and Merge. To do that, use the Reviewing Toolbar
in Word. Click the little arrow beside the "Accept Change" button (with the
blue tick mark) and choose to accept all the changes.

If the documents are really important to you, or the tracked changes might
be needed some day, I would suggest making a backup copy in a safe place
before you start.

There's more info on Tracked Changes at
How does Track Changes in Microsoft Word work?
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/trac...ngesWorks.html

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"Diane F" wrote in message
...
I have always used "compare and merge documents" under Tools in the
standard
toolbar to compare 2 Word documents. The result of this function would
show
me the latest changes between the doucments. However, this is no longer
working for me since I got a different computer. Now it shows me all
document changes from the creation of the original document. I have been
upgraded to Microsoft Office Word 2003. Is there a setting that I don't
have set correctly? Any help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks.
Diane F