Forum Discussion
Footnotes in Document Comparison
the only (and usual) time I see what you describe is when the deleted/(re)inserted is is actually a field, or when the style changes. Then the text in old style gets "deleted" and "inserted" as if it was a new text.
Might it help to remove the formatting option before doing the comparison?
- Rich89Apr 28, 2021Brass Contributor
I was able to replicate the problem by making a document where I add a new footnote 1, forcing what was 1 to 2, deleting the paragraph housing the original footnote, and moving that footnote to a new paragraph where there are no similarities to the original paragraph. I did this without changing any styles. I'll attach something here so you can see it.
What I find interesting, and not ideal, is that if the new paragraph in the MODIFIED has any matching word to the ORIGINAL paragraph, then that will resolve this issue. For example, do a comparison using my attached documents here. You'll see that the footnote 2 doesn't show as changing from 1 to 2. Now, open MODIFIED and remove "Test" from the end of the second paragraph, and the problem I describe in my post will appear in the comparison. Interestingly, you can also leave the word "Test" but just make the 'T' lowercase, and this will also trigger this issue.
What I want to understand is why this happens. I now know that if the text of the paragraph changes, then the footnote will show as being deleted and reinserted. I want to see some documentation I can read that will help me learn why it behaves this way because this is an accuracy issue. That footnote was never deleted, so it should not s how as having been deleted.
- Lenka_KerumovaApr 29, 2021Iron ContributorI hear you :-).
The why's are important.
Well, this is a question for an MS developer. Eager to read the answer, as I have a couple of why's myself. L.