Microsoft Word Compare is great for simple or one-off document comparisons – and it’s familiar and free when you have MS Office installed. But it’s just not enough for legal professionals who need a specialist solution for faster, more accurate, and more complex document comparisons. As a result, more legal teams are turning to specialist tools like Draftable Legal to boost the efficiency of their workflows.
To help you choose the right tool for your team, we look at the different features between Microsoft Word and Draftable Legal, a document comparison solution built for lawyers. We also take a deep dive into the specific features legal professionals need in their document comparison software.
Accuracy is where Draftable Legal shines. While the Microsoft Word Compare function picks up the changes, Draftable Legal’s superior accuracy ensures you quickly see when there are genuine changes, rather than waste time re-reviewing unsubstantial changes.
MS Word Compare also has limited precision in identifying small details, but with Draftable Legal you can:
One of the greatest advantages of Draftable Legal over Microsoft Word Compare is workflow efficiency. As Draftable Legal was built specifically for lawyers, it’s designed to integrate seamlessly into legal workflows and essential software including the MS Office Suite, including Word and Outlook and Document Management Systems (DMS) like iManage, NetDocuments and SharePoint.
Here’s a closer look at the differences between Draftable Legal and MS Word Compare in workflow efficiency.
Another area where Draftable Legal excels is its ability to compare different documents and file types. While Microsoft Word Compare only opens Word documents, Draftable Legal supports a wide range of file types including:
Comparing free text: The ability to compare free text is a particularly useful and time-saving feature. For example, if you need to compare text within an email or a certain clause in a document, you can simply highlight the text and drag and drop it in the launcher or click the “compare text” button in the Draftable ribbon in MS Word or Outlook. You don’t have that option with MS Word Compare, as you’d need to create a separate Word file containing that text first, before uploading it for comparison.
Built-in OCR capability: Another time-saving feature of Draftable Legal is the ability to compare PDF files without needing to OCR them first. With Draftable’s built-in OCR capability, you can simply upload and compare the file in its original format, meaning you’ll save time on PDF to Word and Word to Word comparisons.
Along with the ability to compare different file types, Draftable Legal has more options for comparison output types over the Microsoft Word function when comparing Word and PDF files. You can generate document comparisons and export them in native Tracked Changes format, PDF Redline or PDF Changed Pages Only.
With Microsoft Word, you can only view the comparison output in Tracked Changes. With Draftable Legal, you can view the output in a Side-by-Side view and Draftable’s purpose-built PDF viewer, along with native Tracked Changes format.
If you have different output preferences to your team members, or across different teams, you have the power to customise your output with Draftable Legal, through pre-set rendering sets (also referred to as “profiles”).
With Microsoft Word, all users have the same output type, but with Draftable Legal, you can create multiple pre-set rendering profiles for the whole firm, a specific team, or even individual users. The profiles can be created, managed, and fine-tuned by individual users, as well as by administrators via Group Policy.
Microsoft Word is a giant in the software industry, making it more difficult to get responsive and specific customer support for issues relating to document comparison.
As a specialised software provider, Draftable offers responsive customer support operating from different continents. With the team committed to quickly resolving any issues, Draftable can offer the personalised service that enormous legacy companies simply cannot match.
Draftable Legal stands out as a superior document comparison solution for legal professionals, offering enhanced accuracy, greater workflow efficiency, and a range of customisation options. It excels over the Microsoft Word Compare function by providing precise change detection, supporting a wider array of file types, offering different output and view types, and seamless integration into legal workflows.
The Draftable team designed Draftable Legal to meet lawyers’ unique needs, so legal professionals no longer need to use tools that don’t quite fit. The software is incredibly easy to use, and the intuitive interface means you need less “clicks” to complete comparisons. With its user-centric approach and dedicated customer support, Draftable Legal is a reliable partner in your legal document review process.
Start a free trial and take Draftable Legal for a test run, or contact our experts to learn more.
Disclaimer:
This article is NOT purporting to provide legal advice;
We are NOT responsible for any of the third-party resources mentioned in this article.
In using any resources, you should solely rely on your own judgement and do so at your own risk.