Compare Word Documents

The Compare Word Documents action takes two Word documents (.doc, .docx) as inputs, compares them, and produces a new Word document that highlights the differences. Differences in content are marked in the produced document.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Allowed Values	Required	Description
First Document	File content	.doc, .docx	Yes	The first Word document to be compared (e.g. the output of a “Get file content” action).
Second Document	File content	.doc, .docx	Yes	The second Word document to be compared (e.g. the output of a “Get file content” action).
Ignore case changes	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to ignore differences in letter casing (e.g. “Word” vs “word”).
Ignore fields	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to skip over Word fields (e.g. merge fields, formula fields) during comparison.
Ignore formatting	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to ignore font/style/paragraph formatting changes when comparing text.
Ignore tables	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to omit any table structures and contents from the comparison.
Ignore comments	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to exclude inline comments and their text from the diff.
Ignore textboxes	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to ignore content contained within textboxes or drawing canvases.
Ignore footnotes	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to skip footnote bodies and markers in the comparison.
Ignore headers and footers	Boolean	Yes / No	Yes	Whether to exclude any header/footer content (including page numbers) from the diff.
Revisions Author	String	—	No	Name of the author whose tracked changes/revisions should be included.
Revisions Datetime	Boolean	Yes / No	No	Whether to include the date and time stamps on tracked changes in the output.

Returns

Name	Type	Description
File content	`String` (base64‑encoded)	The compared file’s binary content, base64-encoded. Can be passed directly to file-creation actions.

Example

Globex Co currently employs 150 staff across engineering, marketing, and sales departments.

Troubleshooting

Click to expand common errors and fixes

File Content Missing or Invalid

Cause: First or Second Document input is empty, truncated, or not valid Word binary/base64.
Fix:

Ensure both inputs contain the complete .doc/.docx binary or base64 payload.
Re-upload or re-encode the files if necessary, making sure the transfer mechanism preserves the full payload.

Unsupported File Type

Cause: Input is not a .doc/.docx Word file (for example PDF or plain text).
Fix:

Use .docx (preferred) or .doc files.
Convert other formats to Word before comparing.

Password-Protected or Encrypted Documents

Cause: One or both files are encrypted, password protected, or locked for reading.
Fix:

Supply unprotected copies.
Remove encryption or protection prior to comparison.

No Differences Detected (False Negative)

Cause: Ignore flags exclude the types of differences present (formatting, tables, comments, case), or differences are only whitespace/line-ending changes.
Fix:

Review and disable relevant ignore options to include the change types you want detected (for example, set Ignore formatting = No).
Normalise whitespace or line endings if those are relevant.

Tracked Changes Missing or Attributed Incorrectly

Cause: Source documents do not contain tracked changes in the expected form, or the Revisions Author/Revisions Datetime inputs are not set as required.
Fix:

Verify tracked changes exist in the source documents.
Provide the correct author string or enable timestamps if author/timestamp information is required.

Output File Cannot Be Opened or Appears Corrupted

Cause: Output payload truncated, corrupted, not correctly encoded as base64, or no file extension added.
Fix:

Verify the output is a complete base64 string and that no transport layer truncated or altered it.
Re-run the comparison with smaller sample documents to validate end-to-end integrity.
Ensure the created file’s name contains a file extension.

Performance Issues with Large Documents

Cause: Very large files, numerous embedded objects, or heavy media lead to processing time or resource constraints.
Fix:

Reduce file size by removing or downscaling large embedded images.
Compare document sections individually when full-document diffing is not required.

Tables, Images or Textboxes Not Compared as Expected

Cause: Ignore options exclude those elements, or content is embedded in non-standard containers (for example headers/footers, drawing canvases).
Fix:

Disable the relevant ignore flags (set to No) to include those elements.
If elements are in headers/footers, enable header/footer comparison or extract and compare those sections separately.

Differences Caused by Encoding or Editor Variations

Cause: Line-ending, character-encoding, or editor-specific metadata differences produce false positives.
Fix:

Re-save both documents from the same editor/version where possible.
Normalise encoding and line endings prior to comparison.

Generic Runtime or Transient Error

Cause: Malformed binary input, intermittent processing failure, or unexpected internal error.
Fix:

Inspect the action’s input and output payloads available in diagnostic logs to identify malformed fields or truncation.
Retry the comparison with a minimal test pair to reproduce and isolate the issue.

Quick Checklist

Both First Document and Second Document inputs contain complete .doc/.docx binary or base64 content.
Files are not password protected or encrypted.
Ignore options are set to match the comparison intent (formatting, tables, comments, case, headers/footers).
If tracked changes are important, confirm tracked changes exist and set Revisions Author/Revisions Datetime appropriately.
For large documents, test by comparing a smaller sample or a single section.
If the output is invalid, inspect input/output payloads in diagnostics for truncation or encoding issues.