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Live Redline Preview lets you instantly see changes between two pieces of text directly in the Compare Selector — without needing to run a full comparison. This is ideal for fast, lightweight comparisons of clauses, emails, or content snippets.

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What is Live Redline Preview?

When you use free-text input for both the older and newer content in the Compare Selector, Draftable automatically displays a live redline preview of the differences. This preview uses Draftable’s redline algorithm to show changes instantly as you type or paste content. Unlike a standard comparison, Live Redline Preview does not require you to click Compare or wait for a full comparison to complete. The changes appear in real time directly within the Compare Selector.

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When to use Live Redline Preview

Live Redline Preview is designed for quick, short-form comparisons where you need to see changes immediately. Common use cases include:
  • Comparing clauses — Paste two versions of a contract clause to quickly spot the differences
  • Reviewing email content — Compare original and revised email text shared by colleagues
  • Checking content snippets — Verify changes in short passages of text without running a full document comparison
  • Quick quality checks — Confirm that edits were applied correctly to a specific section of text

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How to use Live Redline Preview

1

Open the New Comparison window

Open the Draftable Legal New Comparison window.
2

Select free-text input for the older document

In the older document input area, select the free-text option and paste or type the original text content.
3

Select free-text input for the newer document

In the newer document input area, select the free-text option and paste or type the revised text content.
4

View the live preview

Draftable will instantly display a redline preview showing the differences between the two text inputs directly in the Compare Selector. No need to click Compare — the preview appears automatically.
5

Copy the output

You can copy the output directly from the preview in two formats:
  • Redline — Copy the redlined text with markup showing insertions and deletions
  • Tracked Changes — Copy the output as a tracked changes version for use in Word
Live Redline Preview is only available when both the older and newer inputs are set to free-text mode. If either input is a file (DOCX, PDF, etc.), the preview will not appear and you will need to run a standard comparison.

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Performance with large text inputs

Draftable has been optimised to handle large text inputs in the Live Redline Preview without performance degradation. You can paste extensive clauses, schedules, or long-form content and scroll, search, and compare without interruption or lag.
Live Redline Preview was introduced in the December 2025 (v25.12) release, with performance improvements for large text inputs added in the January 2026 (v26.1) release.