How to Compare Two Word Documents or Excel Tables Online

Your colleague has revised your document or table and you want to know in which part he has made changes, or you want to compare the differences between the first and second drafts of your paper, you have come to the right place, this article will show you the way to compare two Word documents or Excel tables.

Part 1: Comparison of Two Word Documents

To compare two Word documents, you can manually review and compare the documents by carefully examining each aspect mentioned above. Alternatively, you can use the "Compare" feature in Microsoft Word, which highlights the differences between two documents side by side. Follow these steps to compare two Word document:

Step 1: Open the Word document you want to compare, click on Review in the upper toolbar, then click on Compare to open the drop-down menu and select the option to compare two versions of a document.

Step 2: Once the Compare Documents window opens, click on the file button under “Original document” on the left.

Step 3: Find the original document and then click the file button under Revised document on the right.

Step 4: Select the document you need to compare to the original document, then click OK to start comparing the two Word documents.

Step 5: The comparison results document will open, and you will be able to see the differences between the two documents. Just close this window after completion.

Part 2: Comparison of Two Excel Tables

To compare two Excel tables, you can visually review and compare the data and formatting within the Excel worksheet, but this can be very laborious and the results can be inaccurate. Here is an easy way for you to compare two Excel tables：Spreadsheet Compare application, which can identify and highlight any differences.

Step 1: Click on Search on the taskbar to open the panel, then type Spreadsheet Compare in the search box to find the Spreadsheet Compare application and open it.

Step 2: Once the Spreadsheet Compare window has opened, click on Compare Files in the upper toolbar.

Step 3: On the Compare Files window, click on the file button under “Compare (older file)” and select the table you want to compare.

Step 4: Click on the file button under “To (newer file)” and select the newer file to compare to the older file.

Step 5: Go back to the Compare Files window again and click OK to start comparing the differences between the two Excel tables.

Step 6: The compare result is completed, you can see where is the difference for the two Excel tables.

Note: Spreadsheet Compare is only available for the following versions: Office Professional Plus 2013, Office Professional Plus 2016, Office Professional Plus 2019 or Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise.