- Matched Pairs — compare documents as discrete one-to-one pairs.
- One-to-Many — compare a single base document against several others.
- Timeline — compare a sequence of versions in order (covered briefly below; see the dedicated article for a deep dive).
The Bulk Compare modes are available from Draftable Legal v26.4.0 onwards. The layout icons are always shown in the top-right of the New Comparison window — if you don’t see them, you may be on an older version.
Finding the Bulk Compare modes
In the top-right corner of the New Comparison window, a row of layout icons lets you switch between the standard single comparison and the three Bulk Compare modes. Hovering over an icon shows its name — Pairs, One-to-Many, and Timeline.
Matched Pairs (one-to-one)
Use Matched Pairs when your documents come in clear couples — each older document compared against its corresponding newer document.Select the Pairs layout
Click the Pairs icon. The window changes to New Bulk Comparison, with stacked slots for Older documents on the left and Newer documents on the right. Each pair is joined by a horizontal arrow.
Add your documents
Fill the slots using the icons on each one: Browse your computer, load from your DMS (e.g. iManage), or pick from Recent files. You can also drag and drop files onto the slots. A new empty row appears as you fill the slots, so you can add as many pairs as you need.
Arrange your pairs
Each older document on the left is compared against the newer document beside it. The horizontal arrows confirm each pairing. Drag files between slots to re-pair them, use the per-row Versions controls to change or add a version (for DMS files), and remove a file with the × button.
Choose your comparison type and profile
Select your Comparison Type (for example, Side by Side in Draftable or Redline in Draftable) and a settings Profile. Options that don’t apply to your files — such as Redline in Excel or PowerPoint — are greyed out.
Run the comparisons
Click Compare. Draftable runs every pair at once and shows the progress of each comparison. As each one finishes, an Open button appears so you can start reviewing it without waiting for the rest.
One-to-Many
Use One-to-Many when you want to compare a single base document against several others at once — for example, one standard template against multiple counterparty markups.Select the One-to-Many layout
Click the One-to-Many icon. The window changes to New One-to-Many Comparison, with a single Older document slot on the left and multiple Newer documents slots on the right.
Add your base document and the documents to compare against it
Add your base document (usually the older version) to the single slot on the left, then add the documents you want to compare it against on the right. Arrows fan out from the base document to each of the others, showing that each will be compared against your single base.
One-to-Many also works the other way around — you can compare multiple older documents against a single newer document. See Bulk Compare: How to load and run multiple comparisons at once for more on arranging files.
Choose your comparison type and profile
Select your Comparison Type (for example, Redline in Draftable) and a settings Profile.
If you click Cancel while comparisons are still running, Draftable asks you to confirm — closing the window loses the progress of any comparisons that haven’t finished.
Timeline mode
Timeline mode compares a sequence of versions in order — each version against the next (v1 → v2, v2 → v3, and so on) — which is ideal for tracking how a document evolved across many drafts.
Saving and exporting your results
After a bulk run, you can open each comparison individually for review, or save and export them in bulk from the finished screen. For One-to-Many and Timeline comparisons, you can also export a Combined Departures Table — a single Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) file summarising the changes across the whole run.
For the full save and export workflow (saving all outputs, zipping results, and next actions), see Bulk Compare: How to load and run multiple comparisons at once.