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 It is available for all types of superseded, authorised and draft documents, as long as they have a previous version and they were uploaded in one of the accepted formats which can be previewed on screen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 support@genialcompliance.com.

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

There is an icon on the right to expand a sidebar which allows you to configure settings of what you wish to view and which also lists all the changes made.

Clicking 'Details >', next to 'Filters' will expand the Filters section and allow you to select options of what you want or don't want to be shown.

Since it's not possible to save individual preferences, we've updated the default filter configuration based on popular demand. The comparison tool will now always open with the 'Do not show: Style Changes (All)' setting enabled, so it will display only content changes by default.

Useful Features

General Information:

• By default, the comparison window displays the preceding version on the left and the newer version on the right. There are filters to control which format and content changes should be displayed (please see above).
• 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 sidebar can be expanded or collapsed, to see and search for individual changes made
• 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

Menu:

In the top left area there are the menus, 'View' and 'Help'.  These are the features available under 'View':

• Under 'View Mode' you can:
  • Select the mode 'Side-By-Side View' to see both versions
  • Select the mode 'Single Document View' to see only the latest version, with changes shown in 'redline' style
• Under 'Cursor' you can:
  • Use the 'Scrolling Tool' to move the text up or down
  • Use the 'Text Selection Tool' to select text and copy it to the clipboard
• Tick 'Show Change List' to expand the sidebar
• Tick 'Enable Scrolling Lock' to move the two documents in sync
• Click 'Fullscreen' to enlarge the pop-up window to take up the whole screen; you can click 'Escape' to shrink the window back into the iPassport environment so it can be closed