|
This issue sponsored by Adobe
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional:
Teamwork just got easier. Combine multiple file
types into a single, searchable document. Share
critical information more securely. View and
respond to project feedback seamlessly. And
get everyone on the same page. Acrobat 7.0.
Try it for free at adobe.com/collaborate
and see how much more your team can do. Better
by Adobe.
AECbytes Tips and Tricks Issue
#13 (December 28, 2006)
Automatic Comparison of Two PDFs
John TeSelle
Founder, LineType Software, Inc.
A powerful feature of Adobe Acrobat (version
5.0 or version 6.0 and 7.0 Professional) is the
ability to compare two versions of a PDF document
and create a third document with the differences
highlighted. Although this feature is probably
not needed by most people on a day-to-day basis,
when it is needed, it is great to have.
Consider a situation in which two different sets
of construction documents have been created at
different times (such as an early-release set
and a final set) and it is necessary to determine
what has changed between the two. Doing this the
old fashioned way is one of the most boring tasks
imaginable, and you can never really be sure that
you have checked everything. It can easily be
automated using Acrobat.
As an example, two versions of a detail sheet
are shown here:
Version 1. (Click here
to see the actual PDF).
Version
2. (Click here
to see the actual PDF).
Can you spot the four differences in these two
files? Here's how to automate this process with
Acrobat.
The menu location of the Compare function varies
in different versions of Acrobat, but in Acrobat
7.0 Professional it is found under Document
> Compare Documents…
The dialog box has several settings. The ones
shown below are recommended for comparing drawings.
- Select the two documents in the dialog box
windows as shown (Version1.pdf
and Version2.pdf are shown
here).
- Choose Page by page visual differences
and Normal analysis as the
comparison options. You can experiment with
the other comparison options, but these seem
to provide good results at a reasonable speed.
- Choose Side by Side Report—the
consolidated option does not seem to work well
for drawings.
Acrobat will then create a new PDF file containing
two header pages that summarize the comparison,
and duplicates of the compared pages with the
differences highlighted inside magenta hexagons.
The comparison report generated from the examples
above is shown below.
Comparison
Report . (Click here
to see the actual PDF).
It may be necessary to zoom in on the duplicate
pages to see the highlighted areas.
Note that the comparison feature is not included
in version 6.0 and 7.0 of Adobe Acrobat Standard.
It is included in version 5.0 of Acrobat, and
in version 6.0 and 7.0 Professional.
About the Author
John TeSelle is a practicing architect in Nashville,
Tennessee. He is the founder of LineType
Software, Inc., which develops plug-ins for
Adobe Acrobat and Reader for the AEC industry.
He is an authority on the use of PDF and PDF-based
digital signatures for architects and engineers,
and has shared this expertise with professionals
across the country in seminars and webcasts sponsored
by Adobe Systems, Inc. He can be reached at info@linetype.com.
|
