The legal blackline option compares two documents and displays what changed between them in a third new document. The documents that are being compared are not changed.
Caution: If you want to compare changes from a number of reviewers, do not select this option. Instead, choose Combine revisions from multiple authors into a single document.
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Open the two documents that you want to compare.
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On the Review tab, in the Compare group, select Compare.
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Click Compare two versions of a document (legal blackline).
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Under Original document, browse for and select the document that you want to use as the original document.
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Under Revised document, browse for and select the other document that you want to compare.
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Click More, then select the settings for what to compare in the documents. Under Show changes, choose whether you want to show changes at the character level or the word level.
If you do not want to display changes in a new third document, choose the document where you want the changes to appear.
Important: Any options that you select under More will become the default options for comparison the next time you compare documents.
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Click OK.
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If either version of the document has tracked changes, Microsoft Word displays a message box about this. You can click Yes to accept the changes and compare the documents.
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Microsoft Word displays a new third document in which tracked changes in the original document are accepted, and changes in the revised document are shown as tracked changes.
The source documents that are being compared are not changed.
