RE: Framemaker or PDF Comparison Tool

["Zagorac, Mladen" <Mladen -dot- Zagorac -at- lionbridge -dot- com>]

When asked to compare two PDFs, what I do is export the content of files I need to compare to a plain text file (using File > Export > Text > Text (Plain) in Acrobat) and then use either diff on the command line or UltraEdit (File > Compare Files...). UltraEdit is particularly handy when documents are long and need a lot of scrolling back and forth.

I admit, this is a rather dirty way to do it, but it is also very efficient. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on how the PDFs are formatted: headers, footers, page breaks, images might make things messy. And comparisons can get a bit tedious when pagination between the two versions shifts (which happens all to easily). On the brighter side I am happy to report that for me this is has been much more efficient way than comparing documents side by side on the screen on printed versions. Especially when they run in hundreds of pages.

Note that this method is completely useless if you need to compare non-text infomration.

Mladen
________________________________
Mladen Zagorac
Technical writer
________________________________________
From: techwr-l-bounces+mladen -dot- zagorac=lionbridge -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [techwr-l-bounces+mladen -dot- zagorac=lionbridge -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Ronquillo, Michael [mronquillo -at- equitrac -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 10:41 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Framemaker or PDF Comparison Tool

Hello all,



Is there a way to compare and contrast two Framemaker files in
Framemaker?



In terms of pdf comparison tools, I've found several on Google but don't
know which to choose. Anyone have any great experiences with a pdf
comparison tool?


Thanks,

Mike



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True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
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