Compare Documents Easily with Compare Suite

The Compare Suite project was started back in 2003. From the very beginning it was not designed as another tool for software engineers. Instead Compare Suite was developed for office professionals. These are the professionals who don’t know much about using command line, running Linux or writing console applications.

Diff tool for professionals
Did we achieve our goal? Yes! More over, even the above mentioned software engineers sometimes forgot about their Unix toys and invested in Compare Suite PRO. It is hard to say now who is the user of Compare Suite.

According to our case studies people use this tool for different tasks: regular analysis of reports, comparison of contract drafts, finding the difference between two spreadsheets, comparing PDFs and much more. Some like Compare Suite for the reporting while others find its interface plain and easy to understand.

Comparison of Excel Spreadsheets

For sure, there are some functions that make the difference. For example, as mentioned comparison of Excel spreadsheets is not just text comparison. Compare Suite works smarter, it will tell users what the difference is between two numbers and will calculate this difference in percentages.

Excel comparison in Compare Suite
If the program finds different dates, it won’t just report the difference, but it will calculate what the difference is in days or months. In a number of forums Compare Suite is mentioned as a best choice for comparison of Excel files.

3rd Party Compare Tool for DMS System

What we had to have in mind when developing Compare Suite is that the document doesn’t end its life on a user’s desktop. Normally, there is a long story behind any document. In some cases it was extracted from a company’s Document Management System, and the name was pasted as a parameter to Compare Suite (we call it integration with DMS). In other cases a user simply dragged and dropped the file on Compare Suite’s form.

Compare Files From Archives

The program has to fulfill all of the needs that a professional might have. For example, Compare Suite can extract files that you need from zip or a rar archive or download data for comparison from your FTP server.

Compare files from FTP

Comment on Changes and Report

What happens with two documents after they were compared? Users might simply review differences visually and close the program, or he or she might generate a HTML report with all the details about differences found and send it to their colleague.

HTML diff report
There is a place for critique. Once two documents are compared, it is possible to write comments on certain differences found. Your boss might ask you why you have changed this in the draft of the document or you might ask your boss why these changes in requirements were introduced.

Adding comments in COmpare Suite
Read more about working with the documents after comparison.

Ignore Text That is Not Relevant

Integration with the document management systems that we mentioned above is just a part of integration in work cycle that Compare Suite provides. For example, when comparing documents regularly you might face the problem that time stamp in the footer of the document always distracts you from changes that matter. In this case you can adjust Compare Suite’s ignore functions. These functions gives a flexibility to ignore certain lines or lines with specific marks.

Ignore string when compare file
Read more about line ignoring…

Compare By Words and By Keywords

We know that during the work day professionals might face impossible tasks. We have to be prepared for this as well. What about comparison of two documents that have nothing in common? No common ancestor? No lines to compare? For this very case the “by keywords” function was introduced. Try it to compare the text of two articles about the same topic copied from different websites. Doing this simple keyword analysis you’ll learn a lot about language that different journalists use. And off course, this is the fastest way to compare two documents and to get an idea about the difference between them.

Compare 2 documents by keywords
Read more about By Keywords comparison.

Merge Two Documents into One

This is great tool for creative people. Do you want to get two versions of the document and compile a new one that will incorporate all the best from both documents? Sounds like a tough task and it is. Technology can help you. In Compare Suite you will find a merge function that will help you with combining two documents.

Merge changes into documents
Read more about working with the documents after comparison.

Compare MS Office Documents

What is the file format of the documents that you normally deal with in your office? Is it PDFMS Word or Excel Workbook? Do you use files created by free Open Office? Do you have a presentation designed in PowerPoint? Compare Suite supports various file formats so you don’t need to worry about compatibility. The program will process the most popular file formats and show you the difference.

Compare popular file formats in Compare Suite
When we start talking about processing of files users always ask how the files are processed and if it is secure. We do understand this concern. Today when everything is in the cloud it is important to keep business critical information in your company not on the cloud server. Compare Suite processes all data locally without using any web services. What you open in Compare Suite stays on your PC only.

Read more about the comparison of MS Word documents…

Compare HTML: Code and Web Page View

Among our users are web designers as well. They like Compare Suite as it can compare not only HTML code

Compare webpage code

but also web pages as it looks in web browser.

Compare HTML documents as they look in browser
Read more about how software developers and web designers can use Compare Suite.

Compare Images and Multimedia

Another reason why professional designers and home users like Compare Suite is that it allows you to compare images and multimedia files. With images it can show you a changed part of the picture. For a multimedia file, it can compare all the information incorporated inside the file such as when you need to choose which file has better encoding quality.

Diff two images
Read more about multimedia comparison.

Compare and Synchronize Two Folders

We were talking about files only, but Compare Suite is as good with folders as it is with files. The program allows you to compare and synchronize two folders so that if you have to work on two different PCs you can always have a fresh copy with you.

Synchronize two folders with Compare Suite
Read more about folder comparison.

3-Way Comparison

These who need even more functions will be impressed with 3-way comparison released in Compare Suite. You won’t use this feature everyday, but if you have a specific case when you need to see 3 files together with differences between them at once, then Compare Suite is ready to help you.

3-way comparison in Compare Suite
Read more about how software engineers can use Compare Suite.

Try for Free for 30-Day

Finally, our policy is to give everything a try before you pay for it. You can download our 30 day trial version of Compare Suite PRO. Try it on all your business tasks and decide if you are ready to invest in it. If you don’t need file compare software packed with all possible features, then you can start with Compare Suite Light, which provides you with basic comparison for free.


Compare Suite Video Introduction
Download free 30-day trial version.

Where Compare Suite is used:

Compare Suite Features:

Compare FileCompare documents to find differences regardless of the format: MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, PDF.

Compare FoldersCompare two local or remote folders to find and synchronize any changes made.

Compare by KeywordsUse the keywords comparison to analyze non-related documents created from different formats.

Compare ArchiveArchive comparison: compare Rar and Zip archive files without unpacking / unzipping.

COmpare Web-PageCompare web pages as code with HTML tags or as text as seen in a web browser.

Compare ImagesCompare two images of various formats to find all possible differences, even slight ones.

Compare MultimediaMultimedia comparison. Compare information from multimedia and graphic formats.

Ignore WordsIgnore words. Compare Suite can ignore certain keywords or strings during comparison.

Integrate with DMSDMS Integration. Easily integrate Compare Suite into 3rd party document management systems.

Highlight SyntaxSyntax highlighting for .pas, .asm., cpp, PHP, XML, bat, css, dpk, xsl files supported.

Compare FTPCompare files located on FTP as easily as on hard drives or local area networks.

Compare Command LineUse command line to automate comparisons and integrate it with 3rd party tools.

Compare UnicodeUNICODE is fully supported: open and compare documents in any language or encoding.


Review compared documents:

Compare ReportCreate a fully customizable comparison report on two files or folders.

Compare CommentsWrite your own comments on changes you or your colleagues make, improving collaboration.

Audit DocumentUse document audit to accept or decline changes made in plain text files.

What is Compare Suite?

  • It is a file compare tool
  • In office Compare Suite helps to compare word files, Excel spreadsheets, web-pages
  • Software developers and web-masters use Compare Suite to do version compare, approve changes in documents or compare certain file types like XML, PHP, C-Sharp
  • Office managers use Compare Suite to diff PDF files, compare invoice files
  • Compare Suite also make it much easier synchronization of directories