Altova DiffDog Server 2024 

Comparing Word Documents

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You can use DiffDog Server to compare Microsoft Word 2003 or later documents (.docx, .dotx). Microsoft Word is not required to be installed in order to perform such comparisons.

 

To compare Word documents, invoke the diff command similar to how this is done for plain or XML text files, for example:

 

<executable> diff "C:\Reports.docx" "C:\ReportsWithFeedback.docx" --mode=doc

 

As best practice, set the --mode=doc option in order to instruct DiffDog Server to treat the compared files as Word documents.

 

When comparing Word documents, you can choose whether formatting information such as bold, italic, font size and color should be ignored or taken into account. The diff command provides the following options for that purpose:

 

--doc-format-bold, --dfb

--doc-format-font-color, --dfc

--doc-format-font-name, --dff

--doc-format-font-size, --dfs

--doc-format-italic, --dfi

--doc-format-underline, --dfu

 

When set to true, any of the options above will take into account text with the respective formatting.

 

In addition, you can set the following options when comparing Word documents:

 

--doc-ignore-blank-lines, --dib

--doc-ignore-case, --doc

--doc-whitespace-mode, --dws

 

For Word documents, the comparison outcome is reported by the exit status code, like with other comparison kinds. In addition, if differences exist, a detailed XML report is available. For more information, see Viewing Comparison Results.

 

Note:Along with .docx files created in MS Office, .docx files generated in Text Control are now also fully compatible with DiffDog Server.  

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