Several years back (and currently) I was helping to develop code for computing. Now it’s not uncommon, especially when doing a peer review, to get changes sent back to you. Unless you’ve got some really sharp eyes, you might never spot the differences.

So it is with peer reviews in writing. If you collobrate with someone, or they make changes to your manuscript for you, you might never catch it.

One of the tools we used was a tool called Diffchecker. You can download it to your workstation, or use it on line.

Here’s how it works. You load up the document you started with and then the one you got from your proofreader. It finds the differences.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like. Note you can also copy and paste you text into the boxes. I’ve put two different sentences, and let’s see how it works. Notice, one has typos, the other doesn’t. Since I copied and pasted these both, both buttons for “Paste a Text” should be checked.

Click “Compare” at the bottom. Let it run, and it will start finding the problems your proofreaders found, and maybe fixed for you. It’s very handy when dealing with more than one proofreader.

While I certainly wouldn’t try it with a whole novel, it works well with a chapter or two.

Don’t know if you can use it, but there you go.

You can find DiffChecker at https://www.check-plagiarism.com/diff-checker