Text and developer tasks
Compare two drafts without losing a changed number in formatting noise
Use an old and new requirement draft to check line and word changes, filter whitespace carefully and export a reviewable diff.
A requirement changes from “respond within 14 days” to “within 7 days,” and an exception clause disappears. The new document also has different indentation. A visual skim can spend all its attention on spaces and miss the two changes that matter.
Get comparable text on both sides
Open Text Diff. Put the old version on the left and the new one on the right. Paste the text or import a plain-text file such as TXT, Markdown, CSV or JSON. A Word or PDF file is not plain text; copy or extract its body first, then check that headings, tables and footnotes were not dropped.
Record which file came from which version and give them different names. The tool compares what you provide. It cannot know which draft is approved. If you reverse left and right, additions and deletions reverse too.
Locate by line, inspect by word
For a long draft, start with line mode to find changed or missing paragraphs. At the response-time sentence, switch to word or character mode and confirm that 14 became 7 rather than just the sentence wrapping differently. Find the missing exception and check whether it moved elsewhere or is truly gone.
If indentation and blank-line changes obscure the result, temporarily ignore whitespace. Do not turn on “ignore numbers” or “ignore punctuation” by default: the changed number is the point of this example, and punctuation may alter a condition. View the raw diff first, filter selectively, then switch the ignore options off for a final pass.
Leave a usable review record
Write a short finding beside the comparison: “Response period changed from 14 to 7 days; the prior exception was removed, with no replacement found.” Export an HTML or TXT diff and keep it with the two source files. A diff identifies where to look; it cannot decide the business meaning of a change. A moved paragraph may also appear as one deletion and one addition.
Before handing it over, check that the two texts have plausible lengths, the versions are on the intended sides, ignore options are reset, and every changed number or negation has been reviewed. For a contract, financial file or security configuration, the responsible reviewer should still verify the original documents rather than approving from color highlights alone.