How to assure document integrity - with the Compare Documents module – Help Center

Question

How to assure document integrity with the Compare Documents module?

Answer

Document integrity and why is it important

In most cases, people assume that a document and its copy contain exactly the same information.

But it is really the case? Or might there be differences? In such a case, wouldn't be important to detect these deviations in text very quickly?

In many situations, it is crucial to be sure, that the content of a document is 100% identical with the content of its copy (or another version of that document - this can be for example a PDF original, that was later printed, scanned and archived).

One such a scenario can be found in the legal sector:

A contract can be created in MS Word by Company A and sent as a PDF to Company B.
The relevant person at Company B prints and signs the contract. Then, the contract is sent back to Company A for their signature - as a letter or as a scanned copy attached to an e-mail.

How can the Company A be sure that the original content was not amended in any way?

Instead of tedious reading and comparing of every single word in both document versions, the ABBYY technology for document comparison can be used. This functionality is for example available in the desktop application ABBYY FineReader PDF and can be as well integrated into own applications using the Software Development Kit ABBYY FineReader Engine (where this Document Comparison technology is available for integration into own software solutions since Release 4 of ABBYY FineReader Engine 12)

The new Compare Documents module in ABBYY FineReader Engine 12 alllows to

Compare two versions of the same document, regardless of their format
Easily detect differences in their content

What document formats can be compared

a document created in Microsoft Word with its PDF or TIF versions
two Word versions of the same document
a document photographed by a Smartphone with the PDF original
many other format combinations

Important differentiator against other technologies on the market

In order not to miss the most important deviations - deviations in the content - among too many reported errors, the technology will only compare content information and not report any differences in document formatting (which can be a vast amount, especially when using a document format, which might have gotten visually changed due to the document handling, for example due to photographing it with a smartphone or sending it via a fax machine.)

The detected deviations can be provided as a Microsoft Word document with marked changes and are as well available via the API.

Make a test: How quickly would you spot the difference?

Imagine, this is 25 pages long contract…and only small (but important) amendments were done

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ABBYY technology for document content comparison will detect the amendments within seconds - in any documents, regardless of its format.