How to programmatically use Word's "Compare and Merge Documents..." functionality from C#?

Question

Question

Is it possible to call Word 2003's Tools > Compare and Merge Documents..." function from C# and to get feedback whether any differences were found or not?

What I have found so far

It is possible to call the functionality like this. But I don't know how to get feedback whether the were any differences found.

    private void CompareAndMergeWithFileB(string fullFilePath)
    {
        string FileName = fullFilePath;
        object MergeTarget = WdMergeTarget.wdMergeTargetSelected;
        object DetectFormatChanges = false;
        object UseFormattingFrom = WdUseFormattingFrom.wdFormattingFromPrompt;
        object AddToRecentFiles = true;

        word.ActiveDocument.Merge(FileName, MergeTarget, DetectFormatChanges, UseFormattingFrom, AddToRecentFiles);
    }

I don't suppose you could compromise by recording the process as a macro in Word, then tweak that to somehow show you any resulting diffs? — Darth Continent, Feb 17 '11 at 18:32
@Darth Continent: I am not sure what you mean. I would like to compare hundreds of documents and I am initially only interested in whether the files are identical or not. Same as in a unit test. If they are not identical, I'd like to click a button which opens a file showing the diff file. Both saving and opening the diff file is not a problem. — Lernkurve, Feb 17 '11 at 20:10

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 17 '11 at 22:50

5

Absolutely. Once the merge is complete, work with the Revisions collection to extract details about any changes.

answered Feb 17 '11 at 22:50

Todd Main

28,951
11
82
146

How to programmatically use Word's "Compare and Merge Documents..." functionality from C#?

1 Answers1