How to compare two versions of a document in SharePoint

As you make changes to your documents in SharePoint and OneDrive, there may come a time where you need to compare differences between versions of the same document.

As I have previously covered, Version History is turned on by default in all document libraries, tracking any change that is made to a document.

We know it’s easy to view previous versions and restore them directly within SharePoint, but what if you want to compare one version to another?

Well, it’s actually a feature of Microsoft Word (not SharePoint itself). But because of SharePoint’s built-in Version History, we can retrieve these versions from within Microsoft Word.

1. Firstly, navigate to the relevant SharePoint or OneDrive document library.

2. Right click or click the 3 dots next to any document and select Open in app. This will open your document in the full desktop version of Microsoft Word. The compare feature is not available in the online version of Word.

3. Click on the Review tab along the top, then click Compare. In the Compare menu, you can then select Specific Version.

4. This will open a pop up menu which will show you the same version history as you can see on SharePoint.

5. You can then select the specific version you want to compare against

Easy!