Draftable Legal is designed to be easy to use right from your first comparison. To minimize the number of choices you have to make before running a comparison, there are only a few settings in the New Comparison Window.
The most important of these is the Comparison Type selection. This article defines what each of these Comparison Type options are and explains their benefits.
Default Comparison Type behavior
By default, Draftable will auto-select the following comparison types based on the input file loaded (see table below). Once a user selects a Comparison Type, Draftable will 'remember' the choice and keep that selection until it is changed again by the user.
Input file type | Default Comparison Type |
Word (doc, docx), PDF, Rich Text format, Free Text | Redline in Draftable |
Excel (xls, xlsx) | Redline in Excel |
PowerPoint (ppt, pptx) | Redline in PowerPoint |
Defining Comparison Types in Draftable Legal
There are 5 Comparison Types in Draftable Legal. These are summarized in the table below and described in more detail in the following sections of this guide.
Comparison Type | Description |
Redline in Draftable | Our recommended Redline option. Opens in the Draftable Comparison Viewer for advanced review features and allows for all file types to be opened, saved, printed, emailed or copied to clipboard. |
Tracked Changes in Word | For users who prefer to work in Word and want their markup as tracked changes with associated metadata |
Redline in Word | For users who prefer to work in Word and want their markup as static redline (with no associated metadata) |
Side by side | Our original comparison product for users that need to see changes but don't need to continue working on a file. This produces a side by side PDF with changes shown with highlighting. Comparisons opens in the Draftable Viewer for advanced review features. Can open in Adobe, save to DMS, print, email or copy the output to clipboard. This option compares all files types (including PowerPoint and Excel). |
Native (MS Office) | Microsoft Office's native compare functions for PowerPoint and Excel files (Spreadsheet Compare). This is recommended for users who need to compare PowerPoint and Excel files and continue working on those files afterwards. |
Redline in Draftable
for users who prefer to work in Word with tracked changes. It creates a comparison output as a Word (docx) file with all markup as tracked changes (including associated metadata). Once completed, users are given the option to choose their next action with the Tracked Changes document. Options include:
- Open in Word
- Save (locally or to their DMS),
- Email (generates an email with the file attached)
- Copy to clipboard (useful for attaching to an existing email)
Note: This Comparison Type still uses Draftable's proprietary and advanced comparison algorithm.
This Comparison Type is our recommended output for Draftable Legal customers when comparing Word and PDF files. It compares your files to produce a Redline that automatically opens in Draftable's purpose build Comparison Viewer. Users can export the redline in any format (docx, pdf, tracked changes) from the Comparison Viewer. We recommend this option as the Draftable viewer offers a range of features to give users the best comparison review experience possible, including:
- An interactive (clickable) Change List where selecting changes will jump to their location in the document
- Changes can be tagged or have notes added to them.
- The Change List can also can be filtered by content type, change type, change location and tags or notes (see here for a detailed guide).
- The ability to dynamically show and hide unchanged pages (with options to expand the hidden pages as needed)
- The option to show the input files in the same screen to make it easier to review changes in context (see here for a detailed guide)
- The flexibility to choose any 'Next Action' (e.g. email, print, save to DMS, copy to clipboard) using any or all export formats (i.e. Redline, Changed pages only, Tracked Changes, Changes Report). Importantly, users do not need to rerun the comparison to get any output format
Tracked Changes in Word
This Comparison Type is designed for users who prefer to work in Word with the markup shown as tracked changes. It creates a comparison output as a Word (docx) file with tracked changes (including associated metadata). This is particularly useful when continuing to work on the document in in Word and allows users to 'accept' and 'reject' changes easily.
Once completed, users are given the option to choose their next action with the Tracked Changes in Word document. Options include:
- Open in Word
- Save (locally or to their DMS),
- Email (generates an email with the file attached),
- Copy to clipboard (useful for attaching to an existing email).
Note: This Comparison Type still uses Draftable's proprietary and advanced comparison algorithm.
Redline in Word
This Comparison Type is designed for users who prefer to work in Word but require a redline that does not contain any tracked changes metadata. It creates a comparison output as a Word (docx) file with static markup (i.e. the text is altered to reflect the markup but there are no 'changes' to review). This is particularly useful when using metadata cleaning tools that would otherwise remove tracked changes information. It also helps to maintain the markup schema in your Profile regardless of the client or external party word settings.
As with the Tracked Changes in Word Comparison Type, once completed, users are given the option to choose their next action with the Redline in Word document. Options include:
- Open in Word
- Save (locally or to their DMS),
- Email (generates an email with the file attached)
- Copy to clipboard (useful for attaching to an existing email)
Note: This Comparison Type still uses Draftable's proprietary and advanced comparison algorithm.
Side by side
This Comparison Type is Draftable's original product. It is designed for users that need to see the changes in a document but not necessarily continue working on it (as it can only product PDF filetype outputs). As with 'Redline in Draftable', this Comparison Type automatically opens in the Draftable Comparison Viewer. The same features are available in the viewer, including:
- An interactive (clickable) Change List where selecting changes will jump to their location in the document
- Changes can be tagged or have notes added to them.
- The Change List can also can be filtered by content type, change type, change location and tags or notes (see here for a detailed guide).
- The flexibility to choose any 'Next Action' (e.g. email, print, save to DMS, copy to clipboard)
We recommend this Comparison Type for users comparing PDF files when their Redline outputs are difficult to work through.
We also recommend it for Excel and PowerPoint comparisons (see here for our guide to comparing Excel and here for PowerPoint).
Native (MS Office)
This Comparison Type is only available for Excel and PowerPoint files. It leverages Microsoft Office's Native compare functions to provide:
- Tracked changes in PowerPoint (pptx file)
- Side by side in Spreadsheet Compare
These comparisons will open directly into PowerPoint and Spreadsheet Compare based on the input files provided. For more information on these Comparison Types see our guide to comparing PowerPoint files and our guide to comparing Excel files.
Note: these comparisons do not use Draftable comparison algorithm. They leverage the native compare algorithm in the MS Office. Native compare options are not supported in the Bulk Compare & 1-Click Compare