Text comparison guides

How to compare two texts and review every edit

Place the original on the left and the revision on the right, then run the comparison. The tool highlights character and line differences in copy, release notes or plain-text lists, without uploading your text to a server.

Compare your text

Input and output example

Original text
Release: Monday
Owner: Lee
Status: draft
Revised text
Release: Tuesday
Owner: Lee
Status: ready
01

Choose matching sections

Compare the same section of each version. Comparing a complete document with a short extract creates many deletions that can obscure the edit you care about. Extract plain text from Word or PDF first: this tool does not compare fonts, page layouts, tables or images.

02

Paste or import each version

Paste into the two editors or import separate UTF-8 .txt files. Each input supports up to 1 MB and 20,000 lines. Start with whitespace differences visible so you can distinguish editing from formatting, then decide whether to ignore leading and trailing whitespace.

03

Read the example below

Monday becomes Tuesday and draft becomes ready; Owner: Lee stays unchanged between them. You should see two difference blocks, two added lines and two removed lines. A modified line appears on both sides, so the sum of additions and deletions is not a count of individual edits.

04

Review each difference in context

Use the previous and next difference buttons to inspect each block. Pay particular attention to numbers, negation and sentence endings. Character equality does not prove factual accuracy, and a difference does not mean the revision is wrong. Long or complex changes may be highlighted as whole lines rather than word by word.

05

Finish in your own document

Apply accepted edits to your source document. If formatting is distracting, use the whitespace cleaner and compare again. Clear all removes both inputs and results; refreshing or closing the tab also clears them. There is no cloud history, so keep any source documents you need on your own device.