The Merge (or combine) function takes two similar files that do contain Tracked Changes (usually two versions edited by different people, starting from the same original), and it produces a version with both sets of edits as Tracked Changes. This should be the same as if one person had edited the original with Track Changes turned on, and then the second person edited the first person's version with Track Changes turned on. This may produce some odd results if both people changed the same piece of the original text to two different phrases, as both edits will appear. Also, Merge can only keep one set of formatting changes.

Prerequisites

  • You must be logged in to X-Author Contracts and have an agreement document open.
  • You must have X-Author Contracts version 8.5.1010 or higher.

To merge versions

  1. From the X-Author Contracts tab, select Compare. The currently opened agreement is displayed first in the list.
  2. Select a version to 'compare or merge from' and a version from 'compare or merge to' and click Merge Selected Versions. You can click Search Records and also select the documents from a different agreement record.
    A third document is displayed showing a combination of the selected documents. Redlines are preserved in the combined document.

  3. Accept or reject changes in the combined document.

    Apttus recommends that you manually review and Accept or Reject every track change individually. Using Accept All Changes may result in unexpected behavior.

  4. Check-in your document to create a new version. To avoid errors, it is recommended to append the Suggested Name of your document with "Merged." For version-aware documents, the merged document will increment the version based on the "from" document (For example, if the previous redlined version was 1.2.0, the new version will be 1.3.0).

When you open a merged document in X-Author (The document that was merged in CLM), make some changes to the document and check in the same, select the Retail Document Name checkbox to retain the user given document name. Now along with the document name a version number is suffixed to the document name based on the option selected (with redlines, without redlines and final to be signed). 

For example, if the user given name in CLM was Merged_Document, then the document checked in after selecting Retail Document Name option can take either of the following document names:

With Redlines

Merged_Document_1.1.0.docx

Without redlines

Merged_Document_2.0.0.docx

Final to be signed

Merged_Document_3.0.0.docx

Merge Behavior and Recommendations 

  • Apttus recommends that you perform merge on different versions of the agreement documents generated from the same template for best results. Merging documents from non-identical sources may result in unexpected behavior.
  • Do not use Accept All action on the merged document if either of your documents contains smart fields with modified values, as it may result in an error. As a workaround, perform manual Accept or Reject on each track change, including the smart fields, from Microsoft Word's Review pane.
  • If you are working with the merged document and change your view to 'Show Source Documents' (from Review > Compare), X-Author actions such as insert clause may cause unexpected behavior. Always work with one active document window at a time (merged view).
  • Do not perform Update from Salesforce before check-in on a merged document if your document contains repeat table.
  • The value of the read-only fields (from the 'Revised' document) is not displayed in the merged document automatically. To view the values of the read-only fields, you must first check in the document and then perform Update from Salesforce.
  • If you merge two non-identical documents (non-identical refers to documents not generated from the same template or belonging to a different agreement record), the resulting merged document retains the new smart fields or smart clauses. The smart clauses and fields added are not detected for reconciliation or preview reconcile.
  • Microsoft Word has a limitation which causes X-Author Contracts to display an error when a user tries to merge two agreement documents containing smart date fields. Therefore, we recommend you to avoid using Merge Selected Version with your documents if your documents contain smart date fields and the value of the date field in one of the documents is modified. As a workaround, you can use Compare Selected Versions and check-in the resulting compared document.
  • Reconciliation and Update from Salesforce do not impact new rows added to a repeat-table as a result of merging (insertion accepted).
  • Fields marked as smart in the 'Revised' document before merging are not detected for reconciliation in the merged document.
  • You cannot unlock smart elements in a merged document because Unlock Smart Elements comply system property does not impact merged document.
  • You cannot Accept or Reject changes to the value of a read-only field or clause in the merged document.

  • When you review a modified clause in a merged document, you have to accept and reject changes individually. This is a Microsoft Word limitation.

  • When you merge two agreement documents and then accept or reject the changes from the Revisions pane, the cursor keeps jumping to the top of the page. This is a Microsoft Word limitation. As a workaround, you can individually accept or reject each change by right-clicking the change and selecting the Accept Change/ Reject Change action.
  • After checking in a combined document, X-Author ribbon menu items get disabled for the original document. Checking out the original document enables the menu items.
  • When you attempt to check in a merged document where the original document was non-version-aware, X-Author Contracts displays an error stating that the document is already checked out. You are recommended to append the document name at check-in to prevent this error.