What Is Legal Blackline in Word

If you are faced with the task of comparing an original Microsoft Word document and a copy of the same document with changes made by a colleague, you can do the following: In the legal field, the Blackline option allows lawyers to compare versions of documents or contracts to see what has been revised. In publishing, black lines show an author the revisions made during the editorial process and follow the progress of a manuscript. In finance and banking, black lines easily show adjustments in data without having to look at a spreadsheet or an entire document to see changes. The legal blackline option compares two documents and only shows what has changed between them. The documents compared are not modified. By default, the comparison of the legal black line is displayed in a new third document. Step 3. Click Compare two versions of a document (legal black line). In the Original Document section, browse and select the original document. In the Revised Document section, browse and select the document you want to compare. Microsoft Word is a popular program that offers a legal black line option.

To run a black line in Word 2003, open one of the two documents that you want to compare. Click the Tools menu and select Compare and Merge Documents. Check the “Legal Blackline” box and select the second document you want to compare. Click Compare. This creates a new file that you can save and review without modifying the original documents. Click More, and then select the settings for the items you want to compare in the documents. Under Show changes, select whether you want to view changes at the character or word level. Then, in the Revised Document drop-down menu, enter the name that you want to use to report changes in the resulting legal Blackline document, if any, in the Text box Label changes with. The term “legal blackline” comes from the legal profession, where lawyers have to compare two documents. Usually, it applies to contracts, but this essential feature of Microsoft Word applies to any type of document. One of the most common tasks in the legal profession is to create a black line legal document, which can also be referred to as document comparison. Comparing documents can be difficult.

Microsoft Word`s legal black line feature makes it much easier to compare documents. Legal blacklining, also known as redlining and document comparison, is a way to compare two documents in a word processor and display only what has changed between them. SCENARIO: I had to compare two 40-page documents to create a report on what changed in between. While this is easy if tracking is enabled until everyone has finished editing, it is much more difficult if the document has been completed 3 different times in the last 6 months and sent between facilities where multiple people have made minor changes. Now I only have the original and the new copy with no tracking history. So how can I compare them? Many word processors have the ability to create a legal black line document. This feature compares two files by creating a third file that displays only changes between the two documents. Native files are not reviewed at all. In addition, many software programs offer high-level legal blackline services where users can collaborate on versions after comparison. The main view makes it very easy to see what has been added, deleted and changed. In addition, the ability to scroll through an area while child documents follow makes the whole process very intuitive.

Many professionals, especially in the legal world, use the features of Microsoft Word to review lengthy documents in order to save revisions between two copies of the file without having to go through the manual process. Many lawyers use this feature when reviewing contracts to note revisions between two copies of a contract. This allows you to make and compare multiple copies of a legal document and notify changes between the original, first draft, second draft, etc. This allows you to keep all copies of the drawings for historical purposes. It also shows what changes were made and who requested the changes. This lesson shows you how to compare documents in Word to create a legitimate black line document. You can easily compare documents in Word to notice the changes between them. One of the most common tasks performed in the legal profession is the creation of a blackline legal document. The terms “redlining” or “document comparison” are two other ways of referring to it.

When you compare documents in Word, you can only view the content edited between the two copies in a separate third document.