- Document Version Comparison

Document Version Comparison

Introduction

The document comparison tool in iPassport is very user friendly and provides clear details of changes between two consecutive versions of a controlled document. It’s so easy to use, it barely requires this article.

Use and Availability

No special permissions are required for this feature. Any user who can read a document will have access to the comparison button.

The “Compare with…” button has a magnifying glass icon and it’s found under the General tab of controlled documents, just below the grey bar of record tabs. It is available for all types of superseded, authorised and draft documents, as long as they have a previous version and they were uploaded in one of the accepted formats which can be previewed on screen (.pdf, .doc, .docx or .rtf). If a comparison cannot be generated, the message, “The comparison failed to generate, please try again later” should be displayed. If previews are visible in the general tab of both versions of the document being compared and the ‘Comparison Failed’ message still appears, then please contact [email protected].

Clicking the “Compare with…” button opens the comparison tool in a lightbox. Click the “X” in the top right corner to close it.

Useful Features

General Information:

• The comparison window displays the preceding version on the left and the newer version on the right. It doesn’t compare format changes or images, only text content.
• Text deleted between versions appears highlighted in red in the left pane and text inserted in the newer version appears highlighted in green in the right pane.
• There is a column that divides the two panes, which provides a graphical overview of all the changes in the document. It has a scroll button to quickly navigate to areas where changes are shown.

Header area tools:

• The Thumbnail/Outline sidebar can be toggled on and off, to use as a search aid
• There is a search field for each individual document above it. Click the magnifying glass icon to open a search box.
• Navigation tools allow skipping to the previous/next page or to a determined page number
• The zoom level can be adjusted with “-” and “+” signs or by selecting a value from the dropdown menu
• A ‘Hand’ tool can be toggled on or off to ‘grab’ and scroll the documents

Footer area tools:

• In the bottom right corner there is a button (Sync Scrolling) that can be toggled to allow moving the two documents in sync or to just scroll one document at a time.
• In the same area, to the right of the ‘Help’ button, there is an icon that allows enlarging the window to full-screen. The same button (or pressing “Escape”) shrinks the window back into the iPassport environment so it can be closed.