Comparing Docs on Word 2007

Back up both versions before you try anything.

I've never done it because I don't write in Word, so I'm not qualified to advise beyond that.

When I had an editor, we both used Word, I in 2003 and she in 2007. Then I would use the compare and merge documents feature. If there were any conflicts, I could manually go over them. I was quite satisfied with it. Sounds like you are too.

As a default setting, the compare documents function creates a whole other "compared document", which is your "new document" marked up with the changes you made to your "old document". It doesn't actually change your files, so you don't need to back up the files beforehand.

Let me take a screenshot. In the centre is the "compared document" marked up with changes. You can see the "old document" (my beta version from 2009) in the top right and the "new document" (my current master version from 2011) in the bottom right. There's also a list of changes on the left.

You can go through this compared document, accepting and rejecting changes, and save the result, or just look through the changes as a guide for editing your master document.

That help?

If you right click on a markup note, it gives you an option to reject or accept that change. Or you can click on Show Markup in the Review pane in the menu bar and choose to show or hide comments, formatting, insertions and deletions, etc.