Does this software exist?

RightHoJeeves · Jun 23, 2014

Not sure if what I'm about to ask makes any sense... but I'll ask anyway.

Is there software that can tell you the similarity between two documents? As in, it could tell you something like 35% of sentences are the same between the documents. Or something. I don't quite know how this hypothetical program works.

Anyway it just occurred to me it would be interesting to compare a first draft to a final draft to see how many (if any) sentences made it through.

Gilroy Cullen · Jun 23, 2014

If you use M$ Word or Corel Wordperfect, they both offer a compare document feature.

so provided you still have the original draft before you started making changes, you can just plug them both into it for it to see what the differences are...

jjdebenedictis · Jun 23, 2014

It sounds like plagiarism-detection software is what you're after.

I don't know if you can find a program that will do exactly what you want it to, but the technology exists (if not exactly in the form you want.)

Caitlin Black · Jun 23, 2014

jjdebenedictis said:
It sounds like plagiarism-detection software is what you're after.

I don't know if you can find a program that will do exactly what you want it to, but the technology exists (if not exactly in the form you want.)

That's what I was going to say.

Torgo · Jun 23, 2014

Gilroy Cullen said:
If you use M$ Word or Corel Wordperfect, they both offer a compare document feature.

so provided you still have the original draft before you started making changes, you can just plug them both into it for it to see what the differences are...

Yeah, this is probably the way to go.

There are other ways of doing it - here's an article. Basically you are DIFFing the two files, and different programs will display the output in different ways.

Does this software exist?

RightHoJeeves

Gilroy Cullen

Handsome servant of a redhead

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar

Caitlin Black

Wild one

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.