Using the Legal Blackline Option in MS Word
Word for Microsoft 365 Word 2019 Word
2016 Word 2013 Word 2010 Word 2007
The legal blackline option compares two
documents and displays only what changed between them. The documents that are
being compared are not changed. The legal blackline comparison is displayed by
default in a new third document.
If you want to compare changes from a number of reviewers, do
not select this option. Choose Combine revisions from multiple authors
into a single document instead.
1. Open the documents
that you want to compare.
2. On the Review tab,
in the Compare group, click Compare.
3. Click Compare
two versions of a document (legal blackline).
4. Under Original
document, browse for the document that you want to use as the original document.
5. Under Revised
document, browse for the other document that you
want to compare.
6. Click More, and then select the settings for what you want
to compare in the documents. Under Show changes, choose whether you
want to show character or word level changes.
If you do not want to display changes in a third document,
choose which document you want the changes to appear in.
Important: Any options that you select under More will be the default options for comparison
the next time you compare documents.
7. Click OK.
8. If either version of
the document has tracked changes, Microsoft Word displays a message box.
Click Yes to accept the changes and
compare the documents.
9. Microsoft Office 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.
References