Manage updates with the Download AppCNET Editors' review
Workshare Professional is an enterprise-class solution to the problem of tracking and managing changes to critical documents. Working with Microsoft Word, it can compare, convert, and verify content between documents. It converts PDFs to Word documents, compares PDFs with PDFs or Word docs, identifies confidential information in documents, and creates PDFs from any Office file format without requiring Acrobat or other PDF software. It maintains master copies of e-mailed documents, and its metadata search and removal feature removes entire sets of comments, revisions, and other changes.
During the installation process, Workshare automatically selected the appropriate modules to install and gave us the option to deselect them or select additional modules. The main user interface's ribbon-style toolbar and large, clearly labeled icons will fit well in business environments. A pop-up wizard let us quickly select files to compare. We could also open this comparison wizard from the program's Start button as well as open saved files and access the Configuration Manager. This extensive but easy-to-use tool has a page full of clearly labeled Options such as Rendering Sets, Administration, and User Interface, all categorized by headings: Protection, Comparison, Review, General, and Integrations. It also accesses the Rendering Set Manager and licensing data. We loaded two versions of one document: an original and one with substantial changes. Workshare displayed the two documents in smaller, split views; when the comparison finished, it displayed the whole document with changes highlighted in blue in the main window. Tracking the sequence is easy; an onscreen message indicated its number when we placed the cursor over a change. Clicking Manage Changes imports the changes from one document into another, with the opportunity to accept or reject each. It also opens a sidebar displaying the name and data of the person who made each change. We could save files as DOC, text, HTML, PDF, and other file types.
That's just a small part of what Workshare Professional does. It has many productivity-enhancing extras, some of which we'd like to see a lot more of, such as the Clipboard manager and viewer. As enterprise-class software, it proved surprisingly easy to configure and use. Even the most technophobic end users should be able to handle it. The full version of Workshare Professional is free to try for 14 days.
Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of Workshare Professional 7.0. The trial version is limited to 14 days.
Publisher's Description
From Workshare:
Workshare Professional makes it easier to manage and compare documents. Working within Microsoft Word you can assemble, review, compare versions, and verify document content. You can also compare PDF to PDF, PDF to Word, as well as convert a PDF to a Word document. When you email your document for input, Workshare Professional automatically maintains a single master document so returned comments are easy to manage. Alerts notify you when there is private or confidential information in your document--such as a social security number. Metadata removal options provide the ability to clean your document of any history of comments, revisions, reviewer's names. One click PDF creation provides a PDF option on all Office file formats without the need for Adobe Acrobat. And Workshare Professional comes with complete support for Unicode language documents and operating systems.
What's new in this version: Version 7.0 includes the ability to Work faster by reviewing document edits by category, increased security with PDF metadata cleaning, improved search capabilities, new platform support, more APIs for custom integrations, and it's optimized for enterprise installation, integration and management.
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All versions:
3.5 starsout of 4 votes
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Results 1-4 of 4
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"Very Annoying to Recipient"
Version: Workshare Professional 5.2
Pros
Does what it says it does
Cons
Counter productive to the revision process where there is document exchange.
Summary
Workshare Professional (it used to be called DeltaView) does what it says it will do, but is very expensive to be used just to see the difference between documenst. The real power (and the justification for its price) is that law firms use Workshare Professional to control the revision process. This vastly annoys the receiving lawyer since it is a more difficult way to work than Word Track Changes. I got so annoyed that I wrote a free Word macro to change the DeltaView markup into a real Word document. The macro is available as Freeware at http://www.list-search.com/utilities.html
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"Very annoying to the recipient of the document"
Version: Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2
Pros
Does exactly what it says it will do
Cons
Far inferior to Word Track Changes for actually revising documents
Summary
Workshare Professional (it used to be called DeltaView) does what it says it will do, but is very expensive to be used just to see the difference between documents. The real power (and the justification for its price) is that law firms use Workshare Professional to control the revision process. This vastly annoys the receiving lawyer since it is a more difficult way to work than Word Track Changes. I got so annoyed that I wrote a free Word macro to change the DeltaView markup into a real Word document. The macro is available as Freeware at http://www.list-search.com/utilities.html
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"Is License limited or perpetual?"
Version: Workshare Professional 5.1
Pros
Its a fantastic product and compares very well - better than Word tracker!
Cons
Dont know whether this purchase is limited by year or is a perpetual licence? Can anyone help?
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"Great product for document comparison !"
Version: Workshare Professional 5.1
Pros
I use Workshare Professional for legal document comparison. Much better than Word compare feature. It catches all changes and keep paragraph numbering and cleaner additions, deletion flags.
Plan to use it with Microsoft Sharepoint in the future for document management and ensure we always work with latest master document within the team, for financial statements reviews iteration and related public company compliance.
Cons
Nothing yet ! Works well !
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