How to Compare Document Versions in SharePoint
Sometimes you need to see exactly what changed between two versions of a document. Compare is the tool for that — faster than reading both versions side by side.
What it is
Word has a built-in Compare feature that takes two versions of a document and produces a third document showing exactly what’s different — additions, deletions, formatting changes, all colour-coded and attributed. It’s the same tool you’d use for a Track Changes review, but applied to two existing documents that don’t have tracked changes.
This is enormously useful when you’ve received an updated version of a document and need to know what changed without trusting someone’s summary. It’s also useful when you have two drafts that diverged and you need to reconcile them. Compare doesn’t change either of the original documents — it produces a new diff document that you can review and use to guide your decisions.
Where Compare is less useful is for very large or heavily-formatted documents where the diff becomes overwhelming. For those, sometimes a focused review of specific sections is faster. Use Compare for surgical analysis of what changed; use direct review for big-picture understanding.
When to use this
- When you’ve received a revised document and need to know what changed.
- When two drafts have diverged and you need to merge them.
- When you’re auditing changes made to a controlled document.
- When you need to understand version-to-version differences for compliance.
How to do it
- Open Word.
- Go to Review → Compare → Compare.
- Select the Original document (the older version).
- Select the Revised document (the newer version).
- Choose the comparison settings (most defaults are fine).
- Click OK — Word generates a third document showing all differences.
- Review the differences — accept, reject, or use them to inform a manual reconciliation.
- Save the result if needed for audit purposes.
Best practices
- Compare against the source of truth. If SharePoint has the master version, compare against that one.
- Save the comparison for audit. If approvals are required, the comparison output is good evidence.
- Use Compare alongside version history. Version history shows when; Compare shows what.
- For controlled docs, prefer Track Changes. Track Changes captures intent at the time of editing; Compare reconstructs after the fact.
Common mistakes
- Trusting a summary instead of comparing. Summaries miss things; Compare doesn’t.
- Forgetting which document is original vs revised. Easy to invert and read the diff backwards.
- Trying to use Compare on heavily-formatted documents. Becomes overwhelming. Sometimes a focused manual review is better.
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How do I compare two versions of a SharePoint Word document?
Open Version History on the file. Open both versions in Word desktop. In one document, click Review -> Compare. Pick the other version as the comparison target. Word shows a side-by-side comparison with all differences marked. The result is read-only — copy what you need into the live document if making changes.
Can Copilot compare two versions of a SharePoint file?
Yes — in Copilot Chat, attach both versions and ask ‘Compare these two documents and highlight meaningful differences.’ Copilot focuses on substantive changes (semantic, structural) rather than every character difference. Faster than Word’s Compare for executive summaries; use Word’s Compare for legal-level precision.
What about comparing Excel versions in SharePoint?
Excel doesn’t have built-in compare like Word. Options: open both versions side-by-side and visually compare; download both and use a third-party Excel diff tool (Spreadsheet Compare for Microsoft 365 users); or ask Copilot to identify changes if the spreadsheets are small enough for Copilot’s context window.
Can I see who made each change between SharePoint versions?
Yes — Version History shows the editor’s name for each version. Combined with Word’s Track Changes (if it was on during edits), you see specific change attribution within a version. For full audit detail across many versions, use the Microsoft Purview audit log, which captures every action including who and when.