Easily Reconcile Versions of a Document Edited By Different People

Getting feedback is important, which is why we often share Word documents with co-workers. Unfortunately, it's rarely smooth sailing. Half the time, people edit your document directly without using revision marks, and even if they do, it doesn't matter anyway, because you end up getting four different copies of the doc, each revised by different people. Making sense of it all and properly incorporating feedback into your original version can be a pain.

All those annoying days of meticulously comparing various versions of your documents are gone. I've got the bead on a free online service that makes comparing and reconciling your copies of Word documents as easy as pie.

CompareMyDocs shows you the differences between various versions of a document. You can upload p to seven different files in DOC, DOCX, or RTF format, and the site shows you a consolidated view of the document, with color-coded highlights representing insertions, deletions, and changes.

As you mouse-over revised sections of the doc, you can click to keep or remove the change, similar to incorporating changes in Word. There are also some rudimentary editing commands available, like cut/copy/paste, and bold/italic/underline.

CompareMyDocs never edits your original files. When you're done, you can save the completed document back to your PC. Unfortunately, I found that the site does blow away formatting in DOCX files, so you might need to spend some time fixing your document when you're done. But if your documents are formatted fairly simply, then it's well worth your time to collaborate so easily.