Normally when group mates pass documents around (through e-mail, key drive) and when they make their own revisions, one of the major problems would be combining all these revised similar documents into one document. Normally what would you do is to open them all and start comparing them by switching windows, and copy revisions to the working document to a point that you don't know what to do anymore.
Microsoft Office Word 2007 has this command called "Combine", you will find this under the Review tab of the ribbon under Compare.
What happens when you combine?
- Microsoft Office Word will ask you for the two documents you wish to combine. (e.g. Thesis (Original).docx and Thesis (Revised by Chester Coronel).docx)
- Microsoft Office Word will ask you on which document will it base the formatting for the combined document.
- There will be four panels on your screen; on your left is a summary of all the changes made given the source documents. On your center is the combined document and on your right are the original and revised documents.
What to do next after combining?
You will notice that some items have been underlined and colured this is a change that has been detected between the two documents. Review the combine document and either accept or reject the changes that have been made.
I will be posting a screen cast of this feature so that you will better appreciate how this one works in real life. J