How to Compare Two Texts and See the Differences

Two versions of a paragraph, an email chain or a configuration file: the question is always the same. What exactly is different? Reading both side by side is slow and easy to get wrong.

How the comparison reads

The Text Diff compares line by line, and within a changed line it highlights the words that differ. Compare “The quick brown fox” with “The quick red fox jumps”: the line is marked as changed, “brown” is shown as deleted, “red” and ” jumps” as inserted, and the rest as unchanged. The summary reads “1 changed line”.

Using the tool

1. Paste the original into the first box and the revised text into the second.
2. Choose any options (below).
3. Click Compare and read the highlighted result.
4. Copy or download the diff if you need to share it.

The options

• Ignore case treats “Hello” and “hello” as equal.
• Ignore whitespace skips differences in spaces and indentation, useful when reformatting made every line look changed.
• Ignore empty lines ignores added or removed blank lines.

Good uses

• Checking what an editor changed in your draft.
• Spotting a changed clause between two contract versions. For legal documents, always read the full text as well.
• Comparing configuration files or short code snippets.
• Confirming two lists really are the same.

Limits

It compares plain text only. Pasting from Word or a web page copies the text without formatting, so style changes such as bold are not shown. Moved paragraphs show as a deletion in one place and an insertion in another. Very long documents are easier to review in sections.

Frequently asked questions