Compare two DITA documents and process the change

Not just a DITA diff tool. DITA Compare is an enterprise solution for finding and processing changes between two DITA documents. Output differences to a number of pre-defined outputs, including our HTML side-by-side view or output to a DITA file and process diffs within your editors however you wish, wherever you need.

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NEW RELEASE DITA COMPARE 11.1.0 AVAILABLE. Improvements made to representing changes found between HTML tables within DITA documents. Learn more →

Configure to find the changes you need to know about

DITA Compare’s algorithms allow you to compare two DITA documents, analysing their content and structure and matching up all the corresponding elements between them to accurately identify and represent changes in your documents.

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Show the difference in a way that makes sense to you

DITA Compare’s configurability allows you to focus on differences important to you, and represent them in DITA markup. This representation combines your original content with the new markup making it possible to see the individual changes in your content.

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Compare your own DITA files

If you’re wanting to try out DITA Compare’s powerful performance, try our online demo which offers fundamental functionality; Diff two of your own DITA files and compare the changes. If you’d like to see all DITA Compare has to offer book a one-to-one demo with a DeltaXML developer.

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Ready to integrate into your products, projects and processes

Accessed through Java or REST APIs integrate into any enterprise workflow or content management system.

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DITA goes in, DITA comes out just as you’d expect

There’s no need to change your existing DITA publication workflows for DITA Compare. The comparison process is tailored specifically for DITA content producing valid DITA output, where changes are marked using native DITA markup. Elements are marked with the @status and @rev attributes and text changes are wrapped in elements (or pre-DITA 1.3) to enable the change markup to be applied at the word level.

Text formatting intelligence

DITA Compare handles structural markup like b and i and semantic inline markup such as cite and term with specific processing so that the focus is on content change without any adverse effects from formatting. The list of elements to handle is fully configurable, allowing you to add or remove elements from our predefined list or replace the whole list with your own.

Change highlighting MathML comparisons

MathML handling is built into DITA Compare as standard. When MathML content inside your documents is compared, change highlighting is created using MathML syntax adding colouring and styling to your MathML. Three different output styles allow you to choose the one that best suits your publication.

Find the changes that matter to you, ignore the diffs that don’t

Comparison results can be configured to show in any form you need, whether for automated processing or human review.

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Compare CALS and HTML tables with ease

DITA tables are complex enough without having to worry about how to compare them. We process CALS and HTML tables to make sure that the results are valid against the table models while still delivering accurate comparisons.

Tracking moves within your DITA content

When editing documents it’s commonplace to move chunks of content from one location to another. In these circumstances, it can be useful to understand that this was a move operation rather than a deletion and an addition. DITA Compare uses element ids to identify this type of change and mark it as a move so that you have the option to style it differently if needed.

Finding change within referenced images

Understanding when externally referenced content changes is just as important as understanding text changes within a document. DITA Compare can identify when a referenced image has changed but can also identify when a modified href actually points to the same image.

Customer stories

Learn how intelligent change reports can build better products

“One of the most important capabilities of Scribestar is to give reviewers a clear and comprehensive view of changes made to the document, or those parts that they are responsible for. With DeltaXML, Scribestar maintains a complete audit of all changes and can display them in a variety of ways.”

Srinivas Suravarapu, CEO and architect

Read Scribestar’s story →

Released 12-24 months sooner

to market than if they tried to build a program themselves.

Accepted into ELITE

the London Stock Exchange Group’s ELITE Programme for ambitious, high-potential companies.

Frequently Asked Questions

DITA Compare is a complete toolkit for reliable DITA comparison. It is the most efficient and dependable way of comparing and finding all of the changes within your DITA content.

DITA Compare is optimised for integration into enterprise workflow and content management systems. All of its functionality is accessed through its Java or REST APIs, which are fully documented and come with complete, working examples. On top of these API’s we have created plugins for popular XML authoring tools, including oXygen and FrameMaker for seamless content authoring and reviewing.

Yes. DITA Compare can be configured to tell you about the differences that matter to you and ignore those that don’t, including changes to attributes, the order of content, differences in whitespace and external links.

DITA Compare works at the map or topic level, bringing comparison functionality for reusable components or complete documents.

Rather than comparing line-by-line, it identifies and matches up all the elements across your DITA content within the document context. This pairing process uses a combination of element names, parent names, position in the XML tree and the structure of child elements to provide you with an easily understandable and accurate comparison result.

DITA Compare generates well-formed, valid DITA content so the resulting output is compatible with your existing DITA tools. It has been designed to make all your content changes easy to work with. Where this involves tables, a sophisticated process works out the best way of showing all the changes, while still generating a valid table.

So you’re only paying for what you need we offer a range of license models dependent on the system architecture you’re using and your current use case. Fill in our get a quote form to receive more details on your pricing options.

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So you’re only paying for what you need our licensing options are dependent on how you’ll be using our software. Get a quote by clicking the button below.

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Support Portal

If you need assistance with a product evaluation or you’re a customer with a technical question about any of our products please head over to our support portal.

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