Word and Excel diff Dilemma

ccoleman72 · Post by **ccoleman72** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:38 am

Hi everyone,

My company is in desperate need of a document version control solution. Currently we are using Visual Source Safe. The only thing it can't do is Diff's for Excel and Word.

So I turned to Vault and I ran into the same problem. Is there a plug in or something that will allow me to Diff Word and Excel files?

I need a client server solution that will allow me to track versions, check in and out and use the Diff feature for Word and Excel files. Does such a product exist? If so, please let me know.

Any help or feedback would be REALLY appreciated!

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:22 am

Word and Excel files are considered binary by Vault. Vault's Diff/Merge tool can only work with text-based files.

There are diff tools that can diff Word or Excel documents, and you *might* be able to configure these to use with Vault, but we haven't tested any in-house.

Do an Internet search on "Diff word excel documents" and you'll see what's out there.

To configure a different diff tool in Vault, choose Tools->Options->Diff/Merge.

If any Vault users have experience with Word or Excel diff problems, please post here.