A regulator released updated guidance and I have to identify what in our policy needs revision before next quarter's i…
Open Adobe Acrobat Pro on your desktop.
Go to the Tools pane and select Compare Files.
Click Select File under 'Old File' and choose the original, baseline PDF version for compliance review.
Click Select File under 'New File' and choose the revised or current PDF version to compare.
Click Compare to start the comparison process.
Review the comparison results summary to see all detected changes, including text, formatting, and image modifications.
CautionScanned PDFs or image-based files may not yield accurate text comparisons; use text-based PDFs for regulatory compliance checks.
Use the navigation panel to step through each change and verify compliance-critical modifications.
Best practiceFor best results in legal or regulatory audits, focus the comparison on text changes and avoid using scanned documents as inputs.
Export or save the comparison report as a PDF for audit trails or compliance documentation.
RecommendationRetain the comparison report as part of your compliance or legal documentation process.
You can filter the comparison results to focus on specific types of changes, such as text, images, or annotations, which is useful for compliance reviews.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
If your PDF files have security settings, the 'Compare Files' tool will not work. You will see an error message saying that the documents cannot be compared due to security. To fix this, you must first remove the security protection from both the old and new PDF files before you can use the comparison feature. This ensures Acrobat can access and analyze the content.
The 'Compare Files' tool offers different comparison modes to help it find changes more accurately based on the document type. For example, 'Reports/Spreadsheets' is better for documents with tables and numbers, while 'Presentation Decks' is for slides. 'Autodetect' tries to figure out the best mode for you, ensuring a more precise comparison of your specific content.
| Comparison Type | What it checks |
|---|---|
| Compare text only | Looks only for changes in words and letters, ignoring pictures and graphics. |
| Full comparison | Checks for all changes, including text, images, formatting, and layout differences. |
The summary page shows you a quick overview of all the changes found between your two PDF files. The 'Previous Change' and 'Next Change' buttons let you easily jump to each specific difference in the document. This helps you review every change one by one, making sure you don't miss anything important.