Find changes between two policy drafts

You have two versions of a policy and need to know what changed before the update goes out. A small edit can change who a rule applies to, whether an action is required, or when an exception is allowed.

Use Text Compare to check the drafts against each other. Then review every meaningful change in context. The comparison can help you find differences, but it cannot decide whether the new wording is accurate, approved, or legally suitable.

Compare the two drafts

1. Open Text Compare. Keep both versions available, and note which one is the older draft and which one is the proposed update.
2. Copy the complete text of the older draft into one side of the comparison and the proposed draft into the other. Include headings, definitions, footnotes, and appendices if they are part of the policy.
3. Run the comparison. Review the differences it marks, including changes to wording, moved paragraphs, and text that appears in only one draft.
4. Start at the beginning and work through the changes in order. For each one, read the full sentence or paragraph in both versions, not just the highlighted words.
5. Make a separate list of changes that need an owner or decision. Record the section, the old wording, the new wording, and the question that needs an answer.

Do not overwrite either source draft while you compare them. Keeping both originals lets you check an unclear difference again and reduces the risk of reviewing the wrong version.

What the differences mean

Text appears in the new draft

This may be a new requirement, definition, deadline, exception, or explanation. Check whether it changes the policy's scope. For example, adding a group of workers to a sentence can make a rule apply to more people than before. Confirm that the new text is intentional and has the right approval.

Text appears only in the old draft

The wording may have been removed, replaced, or moved elsewhere. A deleted sentence could remove a responsibility or exception, so do not assume that shorter wording is only an edit for style. Search the new draft for the same idea expressed in different words before treating the content as removed.

A sentence has both additions and deletions

This usually means the wording was revised. Pay close attention to terms such as must, may, should, only, and unless. Replacing one can change a requirement, permission, recommendation, or exception. Check that the revised sentence still matches the policy team's intent.

Many differences appear in a paragraph

The paragraph may have been rewritten or rearranged. Read the old and new versions from beginning to end. A comparison can show that words changed, but it cannot tell you whether the new paragraph preserves every condition and qualification from the original.

Only spacing or line breaks appear different

Formatting changes can make a comparison look busy even when the meaning is unchanged. A paragraph may wrap differently because of copying, line breaks, or list formatting. Confirm that the actual words and punctuation match before dismissing the difference as visual noise.

No differences appear

The text you compared may be identical, but first check that you pasted the correct versions and included all sections. If the documents contain tracked changes, comments, or text in headers and footers, plain copied text may not include those items. Review them separately in the original document.

Make the comparison reliable

1. Confirm the version order. Label which draft is old and which is proposed before copying. Swapping them does not change the differences, but it can confuse your notes about what was added or removed.
2. Use the same content from each file. Copy the policy body from the first heading through the final section. Include appendices and definitions when they form part of the rules. Do not compare a summary with the full policy.
3. Check comments and tracked edits separately. A copied passage may show visible text but omit comments, author details, or pending revisions. In the document editor, accept or reject tracked changes only if the document owner has instructed you to do so, and inspect comments before preparing a clean copy.
4. Ignore formatting noise carefully. Extra blank lines or changed line wrapping may be harmless, but punctuation, list numbering, and section references can affect interpretation. Verify the actual characters before calling a difference cosmetic.
5. Compare a clean copy if the source came from a scan. Optical character recognition, or OCR, converts an image of text into editable text and can misread characters. Check suspicious words, dates, section numbers, and symbols against the scanned page.
6. Check references after moving sections. If a paragraph was relocated, look for references such as “see Section 4” and confirm they still point to the right place. Also check contents lists and numbering.

For a policy update with many changes, ask the policy owner to confirm the intended effect of each substantive revision. A text comparison identifies differences; it does not explain why they were made or replace a review by the responsible team.

Review changes that affect meaning

Give extra attention to edits that change who is covered, what someone is required to do, a deadline, an approval step, a consequence, or an exception. Check definitions and section references whenever those terms appear in revised wording.

When you send questions to reviewers, quote the section and the exact before-and-after wording. This makes it easier to resolve a specific issue without asking someone to reread the entire policy. Keep the original drafts and your review notes together until the final version is approved.