Comparing Documents | Acrobat X | Adobe TV

This video details using the Compare Documents command in Acrobat X Pro. to identify what has changed between two versions of a PDF file.
http://adobe.ly/A1ANdu

Thanks for that, but if we have a large document in which there are only a few differences, is there any mechanism to easily find each difference, or look at ONLY the differences? It offers a link on the first page to the "first" difference, but after that, it seems we have to eyeball the document or compare panel to find any other differences. Again, in a large document with few differences, that's painful (and risky, if spotting any changes are critical).
I've also looked in the help and now am looking to see if other resources discussing PDF compare might show it. Thanks for any thoughts.

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  • Acrobat Compare Documents: "Acrobat could not compare the documents completely."

    There is a bug with Acrobat X and XI Pro that does not allow you to compare PDF documents created from unknown applications. We use XMetaL Author Enterprise and Acrobat considers it an unknown application. You can verify the application setting of your PDF from File > Properties.
    I entered a bug report with Adobe on 4 April 2013.
    To work around this bug, you can save the PDFs as Word documents and create new PDFs from Word before comparing them in Acrobat. The new PDFs have Microsoft Word associated with them and compare successfully.
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    From the File menu, select Save As Other > Microsoft Word > Word Document.
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    In Windows Explorer, right-click the Word document and select Convert to Adobe PDF.
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    Compare the new PDFs (View > Compare Documents).
    These steps are also useful to convert a PDF to a Word document, if that format is needed.
    Hope this helps others! If anyone has another way around this issue, I am interested to hear.

    This bug still exists in Acrobat 11.0.09.
    I have not been contacted about my bug report, either.
    It would be optimal to have this fixed in the product and not need the workaround I documented above.

  • I have Adobe Acrobat XI standard, but would like to trial the "compare documents" feature on Pro. I tried to download a trial version of Pro, but the installer indicated that "it detected a more fully featured version of the product" - presumably my stand

    Okay - just realised that the last screen was just asking for a "title" for my question!
    I have Adobe Acrobat XI standard, but would like to trial the "compare documents" feature on Pro. I tried to download a trial version of Pro, but the installer indicated that "it detected a more fully featured version of the product" - presumably my standard version? - and stopped installation. It is not clear to me what my options are for either upgrading to Pro, or selectively purchasing the "compare documents" plugin (if possible). I am using what is presumably an Enterprise version of acrobat (i.e. my employer owns it, not me) - so not sure what limitations that results in. I think this is a simple question, but would be grateful for advice.

    - You can't install Acrobat Pro alongside Acrobat Standard. You will need to remove Standard to be able to install Pro.
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  • Comparing two PDF documents | Acrobat Tips and Tricks | Adobe TV

    This video will get you started with using the improved Compare Documents command in Acrobat 9 to identify what has changed between two versions of a PDF file.
    http://adobe.ly/xqvrc7

    Hi there. Thanks for the video. But is there a feature to move among the found differences? Or to show ONLY the differences? In a large document, it's not enough to just "look for" the color-coded differences.
    I have not found any such features on viewing a compared doc. I've also looked in the help and now am looking to see if other resources discussing PDF compare might show it. Thanks for any thoughts.

  • I have Adobe Acrobat XI (ver 11.0.07).  Adobe Help instructs me to find the document comparison command at "View Compare Documents," however, this command does exist on my screen. My View drop-down list does not include a command for Compare Documents.

    I have Adobe Acrobat XI (ver 11.0.07).  Adobe Help instructs me to find the document comparison command at "View > Compare Documents," however, this command does exist on my screen. My View drop-down list does not include a command for Compare Documents.  Where else can I find this command?

    What version of Acrobat do you have? This feature is only available in the Pro version, not in the Standard version.

  • Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro - Compare Documents

    Hello everyone,
    I work for a construction company and have to sets of plans showing the building site in pdf.
    Say they are revision A and revision B. I want to see the differences between the two drawings.
    When i use the compare documents feature in acrobat 9.0 pro i get the new plan highlighted all in orange. When i click anywhere on the highlighted area i get two thumbnail pictures pop up - one is the old plan and the other is the "difference image".
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    Does anyone know how to get this?
    Thank you so much for any help that you can offer.
    Regards
    Alex

    But the image is there when I click, it's just very small.
    Regards,
    Alex Gorton

  • Compare Documents tool in Acrobat Pro 9

    I'm assessing the Compare Documents tool in Acrobat Pro 9 for business use, and have some very specific questions about its functionality:
    When I initially load a pair of PDFs to compare, occasionally Acrobat refuses to accept them as anything but "scanned documents" even though they are fully electronic-sourced PDFs created in, usually, Adobe illustrator.  What are the specific criteria that cause Acrobat Pro to force the "scanned documents" type?  Is it related to the presence of only "flattened"/"outlined" text instead of embedded fonts?  Lack of layers?  Some other graphical feature?  How do the comparison parameters/performance change when the loaded docs are designated as scanned rather than one of the other types?
    Second, when I've done a Compare on two nearly identical documents and then call up the "old and difference images" display - is there any way at all to manipulate this display?  Some of my docs are large - potentially full press-sheet size of around 24" x 40", and when the differences between them are tiny (e.g., a change in only a few Braille dots over the entire graphic) the on-screen rendering of the "difference image" side of the display is relatively tiny and practically useless, although it contains exactly the information I need to see.  Can it be grabbed/stretched/magnified/saved/printed/analyzed some other way besides how it is?  It seems to disappear literally at the first mouse-motion or key-touch, which is incredibly frustrating.  Are there any changes or improvements in this feature in version 10.x over version 9.2.0 (which is the latest version my company has approved)?
    Third, also at the post-compare stage, the feature tags a small printer info block in a corner of the document with "This image was replaced" even when I know the info block has not been changed.  Why could this happen?

    Sounds like you want to do this on a server, but you should know that Adobe Acrobat cannot legally be used on a server.
    For server-based PDF operations you can look at Adobe LiveCycle products or our Adobe PDFLibrary (available in both Java and C++)

  • Document compare in Acrobat 9 a backwards step?

    It looks like Adobe in their infinite wisdom have dumbed-down the document compare in Acrobat 9.
    In Acrobat 8 and before it used to be possible to do a quick-and-easy text comparison to highlight differences between documents. Now there are 3 (undefined) ways of comparing documents, none of which are suitable for comparing two mostly textual documents. The 250 page limit is madness too - many of our documents are 1000+ pages which Acrobat 8 used to handle perfectly well.
    Is there any way of getting the old (Acrobat 8) document compare functionality back?

    I'm afraid I don't have help for you, David, but I fully support your subject line!
    When I used Acrobat 8, I was able to do fairly quick and really effective document comparisons, in which Acrobat 8 focused on what I asked it to focus on (especially text). With Acrobat 9, I no longer have this control, and the comparison quality is horrendous. Acrobat 9 arbitrarily treats some text as images, fails to see blatantly-obvious differences, reports no differences in blatantly-obvious changed text content, and also reports some "ghost changes" (such as multiple "matching graphic not found" messages around words in blocks of text where no graphics ever existed).
    I'm disappointed as well.
    --Michael

  • When I compare 2 documents Acrobat 9 crashes

    When I compare 2 documents the progress bar will come up and will not disappear.  Eventually the following error will appear
    Acrobat.exe - application error
    The instruction at "0x0000195a" referenced memory at "0x0000195a".  The memory could not be "written".
    The above error also comes up if I click on the Progress bar for Document Compare.
    Acrobat then crashes.  We are running Acrobat Pro 9.5, and have this happening on multiple machines
    Thanks

    Hi, I have had a similar problem in Acrobat 10.1.9.22 for *specific files*, and talking to the Adobe tech support, they were also able to reproduce the crash with Acrobat 11 with these files, so it sounds like this bug is definitively not fixed yet.
    The bug:
    - When comparing 2 documents (View | Compare documents...), after some progress, Acrobat crashes (on my Windows 7 machine, it says "the application stopped working", the exception reported for me is c0000005 which is according to Google a memory access violation code). This will happen only on some *specific* .pdf documents (though it will be systematic for these). I am able to compare other .pdf documents fine without any issue.
    ** Current workaround** (thanks to tech support about this): You basically 'clean up' these bad .pdf documents by converting them to postscript and then back to pdf:
    Instructions for Acrobat X:
    For each document, do:
    1) File | Save as | More options | PostScript
    2) Then (in Windows at least), right click on the .ps file and choose "Convert to Adobe PDF" to convert it back to .pdf.
    Now the convert the two documents should work fine with these 'refreshed' documents (hopefully).

  • Missing Compare Documents command in Acrobat x (10.1.2)

    I watched a couple of Adobe TV flicks and supposedly I can compare two PDFs by clicking View > Compare Documents. That command is missing from my View menu. Can anyone tell me how to get it?
    Windows 7, Word 2010, Acrobat x (10.1.2)

    Good day,
    Bill is correct.  The Compare Documents feature is only available in Acrobat Professional.  A number of the differences between Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional are outlined here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html
    Kind regards,
    David
    Adobe Systems

  • Acrobat X Pro Compare Documents To Sensitive

    Hi,
    I am testing the "Compare Documents" functionality for my company in Acrobat Pro X. I must say I am pleased with the results for the most part but it seems like the compares are picking up to much information. For instance, If I insert a table row, I don’t want to see indicators that I have added 20+ new rows to a table (see Screenshot) when I only added 1 row (see grey indicators). I'm looking for a way to modify or tailor the sensitivity of the search function.
    I posted this in the general section of Acrobat and am positing in here for posible scripting ideas. I did see Joel Geraci "Document Compare found too much – JavaScript to the Rescue" ariticle but the dowload link was broken and it would have to be updated to X. http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/2009/05/document_compare_found_to_much.html
    Any scripting ideas?

    Its a take it or leave it. You cannot adjust the comparison.

  • Acrobat X Pro - Compare Documents - Need Help

    I'm running X Pro as a trial to determine if it is right to purchase for my company.  The main feature I am interested in is the "compare documents".  I am in the construction industry and part of my business is to provide estimates for projects.  We use acrobat 9 to view and comment on these documents and specialized software for the estimating portion.  Anyway, construction documents (aka blueprints) are commonly used in a pdf format.  As pricing develops, it is not uncommon for blueprints to change as the design of the building progresses.  Hence the allure of the compare document function.  Repeated attempts at comparing documents has proved unsuccesful.  I keep getting the message "unable to find matching document".  I have used both the "image" setting and the "scanned document" setting.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    I have a PC.  I’m running windows 8  64 bit, but this problem occurred on Windows Vista as well.  There are no error codes it just won’t open.  You can use the program that morning to convert or combine files into a pdf. then 2 hours later you go to repeat the process and nothing.  The icon for it will appear on your desktop for 5 sec. and then disappear.   That’s it nothing else happens.  The same results will occur no matter how you try to open the program, restart your computer, or check for updates.
    The only way to make the program work is to uninstall and reinstall it.  The first time this occurred the adobe rep told me to reinstall the whole suite.  It took 8 hours.  I have now found were I stored the suites setup files to reinstall the individual application verses the entire suite, but it is still annoying to have to re install it ever 30 days or so.  When I do re-install it all the serial numbers are in place and it says I have 36,XXX days left in my trail.
    I don’t know what else you would want, but this is all I can give you because that’s what happens.  I’m currently taking online classes and we are all required to have this exact same suite and I know at least 2 other students who have mentioned this requiring problem.  One was so tired of it the purchased a different program to do it’s job.

  • How do I get a pdf document already on adobe acrobat pro to scan and make it into a scanned document?

    How do I get a pdf document already on adobe acrobat pro to scan and make it into a scanned document?

    Acrobat Pro only. I have a document which I am try to convert into a scanned document. I am trying to find out if it can be done on Acrobat Pro

  • I would like to add a watermark on my pdf document I have adobe acrobat XI standard

    I would like to add a watermark on my pdf document I have adobe acrobat XI standard

    You should have that option under Tools - Pages - Watermark...

  • How to suppress Compare documents dialog in Acrobat 8 using Visual Basic

    Hi,
    We are having one utility developed in VB and we are using this to compare PDF documents with Adobe 8.0.
    Before comparing the PDFs,first Compare Documents dialog is displayed and then we have to say OK. Then,
    mismatches between the documents is shown. I want to suppress the Compare dialog box and is there anyway
    in VB to suppress the compare dialog and to click on OK programmatically.
    Thanks for your Help in advance.
    Raju

    No there is nothing in the API that allows you to automate the pushing of buttons in the UI. You could try and use something like SendKeys to see if it worked but a word of warning. Doing so would be a real HACK and totally unsupported.
    Sabian

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