Text comparison · free · nothing uploaded
Compare two Word documents
Your texts stay on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.
- 0bytes uploaded: the comparison runs on your device, even offline.
- 3levels of detail: line, word, character.
- 100%free: no account, no cookies, no ads.
Paste or drop two texts: their differences will appear here.
Drop the old version of your Word document in the first box and the new one in the second: every word added, removed or changed is highlighted. The document is read by your browser, not uploaded, so you can compare a confidential contract, quote or report.
How to compare two Word files
- Click “Open a file” above each box, or drag your .docx files onto them.
- The text of each document appears in its box, one paragraph per line.
- The differences show up right away: red and struck through for what was removed, blue and underlined for what was added.
You can still edit the text in the boxes, to fix a typo or remove a passage; the comparison updates. Documents can be up to 20 MB each.
What is compared
difftool.fr compares the text of the document: paragraphs, headings, lists and the content of tables, read cell by cell. Formatting is not compared: a word made bold, a new font or new margins do not count as differences. Images, page headers and footers, and footnotes are not read.
That is often what you need: seeing what changed in the substance of a text, without being swamped by layout changes.
What about Word’s own Compare feature?
Word can compare two documents (Review tab, then Compare), formatting included. difftool.fr helps when Word is not installed, on a phone, or when you want a clearer view: both versions side by side, with navigation from one difference to the next and a summary of how many changes there are.
A document with tracked changes is read as if they were all accepted. To compare the state before those changes, accept or reject them in Word, save, then drop the file.
Frequently asked questions
Is my Word document uploaded to a server?
No. The file is opened by your browser, on your device, and its text is extracted there. Only the Word reader is downloaded from difftool.fr, the first time; the document itself never leaves your computer.
Can I compare a .doc file?
Not directly: the old Word format (.doc, before 2007) cannot be read. Open the file in Word or LibreOffice, save it as .docx, then drop it.
Is formatting compared?
No, only the text is. Bold text, a different font or colour are not reported. To compare formatting as well, use Word’s Compare feature (Review tab).
Can I compare a Word document with a PDF?
Yes: drop the .docx on one side and the .pdf on the other. The text of both is extracted, then compared. Word gives one paragraph per line and the PDF one line per line of the page, so expect some differences in how lines are split; changed words are still highlighted one by one.
How can I keep a record of the differences?
The “Print / PDF” button produces a document with all the differences highlighted, ready to attach to an email or a file. It follows the view you chose: side by side or unified.