I have Microsoft Word 2002. Under Tools it includes a command for "Track Changes" and other related tools, none of which I understand or have ever tried to use. Word and I are not close friends.

I'm now stuck with two versions of the same City of Berkeley ordinance, the original and a complete substitution that is really a set of hidden amendments.

Due to factors beyond my control, it appears that nobody ever bothered to identify exactly how the original ordinance was amended by the newer version. I've been told such a comparison is impossible, which I do not believe is true.

As a first choice, I wish to have Word 2002 compare both versions, section by section, identifying the hidden amendments in the substitute measure using the standard legislative format of underline and strikeout.

If what I want to produce is within the capabilities of Word 2002, could someone please tell me exactly how I GO about achieving my goal.

Should Word 2002 not be up to this task, any leads involving other word processing programs would be greatly appreciated.

If you wonder why such a mess exists, that's Berkeley politics, and I'm not the guilty party. I will do my best to have city hall prepare the underline and strikeout format once I know which program, other than Word 2002, will be able to make the comparison I desire in appropriate legislative format.

In case Word 2002 can do this job, then I need to be educated by one of the experts out there about how to properly use word processing capabilities I'm not competent to operate on my own.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.Here's an article on Word 2003. I don't whether Word 2002 will do this.

Compare Two Documents Side by Side

Another article (does not specify which version of Word): Word Compare and Merge Documents

More info: Microsoft Word Tip: How to compare two documents for differences; had a link to http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff

All this comes from a Google search on compare two documents.Soybean,

That's extremely helpful. I failed to do the kind of Google search that turned out to be so useful.

I'm horribly clumsy with word processing, but Word 2002 appears to have the right commands to do this, once I can get both versions into Word.

Currently one version of the document I need for comparison is in PDF format. According to Google, Adobe Reader 8 seems to contain the only instructions for how to achieve copy and paste, involving a black cursor, the "Select Tool", which shows up, checked, as part of a small screen produced by a right click on the text.

I try to use the Select Tool, but it fails to appear on the text itself, preventing me from selecting any text for copying. I'm doing something wrong, but have no idea what approach forces the Select Tool to let me copy and paste.

I hope it would not be too much asking for your help on solving this PDF Adobe Reader 8 problem. Here's the specific knowledgebase article for Word 2002:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306484/en-usI am now able to copy one page at a time using Adobe Reader 8, which is better than nothing. 15 pages to go, but it's DOUBTFUL any command exists for copying the entire document.

Let me CANCEL all prior requests for help.

Thanks to both of you.Here's a tip that might be helpful. Click on File, in Adobe Reader. Do you see a menu item for "Save As Text"? If so, you can save the entire PDF document to a text file, which you could then open in Word. Adobe Reader 8 appears not to contain helpful features that might have allowed copying of the entire text all at once. It had to be page by page. But I am making progress, and will be trying the compare documents function in Word 2002 sometime day.I'm using Reader 7 but surely version 8 also has the Save As Text option. What do you see if you click on File? What choices? Any Save As options?


This might be useful, too: Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents
Soybean,

Whether I was stupid in switching to Adobe Reader 8 is no longer relevant to my current situation. Adobe Reader 8 seems to lacks commands and options available on its predecessors. Of course I never MASTERED any control of PDF documents until today, when going page by page, I have produced the two versions I need to compare in Word.

From my perspective, the next challenge is going to be using the Word 2002 comparison features that ought to produce these amendments in underline and strikeout format for the first time ever, thanks to the directions you were kind enough to provide.

If it works at all I will be astonished. There is a chart in the amended version that I could not duplicate from PDF to Word using copy and paste. The chart is absolutely a 100% amendment. In case you know how such a chart full of lines and boxes containing text can be transferred from PDF to Word 2002, please reveal the secret to me.

Other than the chart, which is hopeless right now, I may be able to produce a comparison in Word that identifies the amendments decently enough for today. Then again, even with the instructions you sent me, I could still mess it all up. In that case, I'm not reluctant to ask for additional help when trying to tame Word into doing anything I want.

So, assuming you are following this thread, please stay tuned for further developments. I appreciate your helpfulness and patience as a response to my near helplessness with any form of sophisticated word processing. Travel videos, both full length, and clips, plus still pictures from all 7 continents, are what I do best. Unfortunately, although I now have both versions of this document in Word, I cannot successfully get anything from Word 2002 that even comes close to identifying changes in the text from one version to another.

I have tried following directions provided in the articles, but, never having done this before, I must have missed something very important. The result, on several attempts, is a new Word document in which everything is marked in strikeout. That's not a comparison in underline and strikeout format, given that I know large sections of the document were not amended.

In the article at

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=647

after opening the first, earlier document, it shows a Word Compare and Merge Documents window where "Compare" is listed after "Look in:". I do not get "Compare" on my screen at this location. All that comes up is "My Documents", a complete listing of every Word document I have.

My choices appear highly unclear at this point. I do not know whether to check Legal Blackline and/or Find Formatting. "Compare" is to the right of these two boxes, and File Name, presumably waiting for me to select the second newer version, whose modifications to the earlier document are my desired end product in underline and strikeout.

Everything I've tried fails. I obviously cannot GUESS the correct commands and their sequence, once my screen deviates from that shown in the article whose instructions I am therefore unable to follow.

Can you provide me with helpful directions?

Thanks. I really do regret being so clumsy with word processing.
I have advanced to the point of doing OK with text.

But I'm now confronted with a chart in PDF, which perhaps would be considered an image by the Adobe 8 reader.

Whatever this is, the chart has text within several horizonal and vertical columns.

Trying to follow Adobe 8 directions, I'm supposed to use the black pointer (select tool) for drawing a rectangle around the chart. The black pointer will select text but not the chart, which is useless for copying. I have to paste the chart into Word exactly as it shows up in PDF. Nothing that allows me to draw a rectangle around the chart has appeared yet.

I'm sure there is a way to transfer this chart from PDF to Word, but someone with expertise and experience will hopefully be kind enough to explain each step to me.

This may be the last problem I need help on, but boy do I need that help.