Wow, it’s really cool how you figured out that system to deal with a tough task. You must be doing those keyboard shortcuts in your sleep

My favorite way to compare documents in InDesign has been to use what I call my “virtual light table” (a bit of a misnomer, but still). It doesn’t require the creation of any new document and it works well for my purposes (a majority of which is text-based rather than graphics-based).

Brief context: I work in a language assessment division (standardized tests) and use ID and IC daily to create multiple test forms (hundreds each year). Often a good percentage of the content is the same from exam to exam, which makes InCopy a godsend. However, often there is trial content (differs from form to form) or reordering of answer choices on items that are the same across all forms. This tosses an unwelcome wrench into the linked IC document solution. But because each test item’s content must remain the same (the header question preceding the answer choices), and in the same position on each form, I had to figure out how to quickly compare documents and fix any discrepancies.

What I came up with? Here’s an example: take two documents: test1.indd and test2.indd. Open up both. Using the “Next Window” feature (cmd-tilde on mac), I can toggle between the two documents. Before doing that, note that I have used Fit Page or Fit Spread for each indd file so that they’re situated in exactly the same place.

Remember, this is not a side-by-side 2-up view; instead, each document will get its full turn in the main window. In this way, if text boxes and graphics haven’t moved or been altered, I will see no change whatsoever as I toggle between documents. Any changes, however, show up and look almost animated as I toggle through (and I do this multiple times and focus on quadrants of each document). (Oh, and, I’ve done this with as many as eight indd files open at once: Using shift with the cmd-tilde Next Window feature, you can of course move backwards as well as forwards).

David always talks about keyboard shortcuts and has made me a true keyboard shortcuts convert. Using the Next Window / Previous Window feature along with the Fit Page and Fit Spread (as well as Next Page or Next Spread) shortcuts, I can do this document comparison relatively quickly and see immediately any changes that have been made because, as I said, the movement created if anything isn’t aligned properly will jump out at me. I really like the procedure and it’s drastically improved my quality control process (and shortened the time I used to take printing out and comparing side by side at earlier stages in the production process).

Eric

I’ve done this in the past when I had to recreate a client supplied PDF as closely as possible.