
The Side by Side feature in Word allows you to compare two documents in the same workspace. For instance, you might want to compare the formatting of an original document to a document with new formatting to see if you approve of the changes. If you have more than two documents open, you are given the option to choose which documents you wish to display.
To View Two Documents Side by Side
- Open the two documents you want to compare.
- Click the View tab on the Ribbon.
- In the Window group, click View Side by Side.
- To return to single view, click the View Side by Side button.
- If you wish both documents to scroll together, click the Synchronous Scrolling button.


