Business Context

During extended contract negotiations, it is common for two parallel versions of a document to exist simultaneously: a counterparty-redlined version that reflects negotiated changes, and a newly regenerated version of the agreement that incorporates the latest template updates, dynamically inserted fields, and new or revised standard clauses. Manually reconciling these two versions by reading through both documents side by side is time-consuming and prone to missed changes.

The Compare and Merge features in X-Author for Contracts Advanced address this challenge by using Microsoft Word's built-in document comparison capabilities to surface differences programmatically. Compare produces a read-only third document showing exactly what changed between the two versions. Merge combines both versions into an editable third document with all tracked changes from both sources visible, allowing the contracts manager to accept or reject each change and check in a final consolidated version.

Overview

This use case demonstrates how a contracts manager at a technology company uses the Compare feature to audit differences between the original sent version and the counterparty-redlined version of a software licensing agreement, and then uses the Merge feature to produce a consolidated document that combines the accepted counterparty redlines with the latest regenerated template version. The merged document is reviewed, finalized, and checked in to Conga CLM as a new contract document version.

Both Compare and Merge operate on versions stored on the same contract record in Conga CLM. Neither operation modifies the original source documents. Both operations produce a new third document — named Compare Result or Merge Result respectively — which opens in Insert Comments and Track Changes mode in a new Microsoft Word instance.

Compare Versus Merge

Understanding when to use each operation is important before beginning. When two document versions are compared, the revised version is treated as the baseline for tracking changes. The result shows what changed from the original to the revised version as tracked changes, while the baseline document's tracked changes are accepted. When two document versions are merged and both contain changes to the same content, the edits from both the original and the revised document are displayed as tracked changes simultaneously, giving the contracts manager full visibility into divergent edits before making a final acceptance decision. If both versions have changes in the same smart field, the revised version's changes are retained in the merged output.

As a general guideline, use Compare to audit and review differences between two versions. Use Merge when one version contains counterparty redlines and the other is a regenerated version in the latest template format, and the goal is to produce a single consolidated document incorporating elements from both.

Actors

• Contracts manager at a technology company — Performs the Compare and Merge operations on the software licensing agreement versions stored in Conga CLM, reviews the resulting documents, accepts or rejects tracked changes, and checks in the final merged document as a new contract version.
• X-Author for Contracts Advanced — Executes the Compare and Merge operations using Microsoft Word's Legal Black Lines compare and Combine functionality, produces the result documents, and manages the check-in of the finalized document to Conga CLM.
• Conga CLM — Stores the multiple document versions on the contract record and receives the checked-in merged document as a new version in the contract's document history.

Prerequisites

• X-Author for Contracts Advanced is installed and the contracts manager has access to Microsoft Word with the X-Author add-in loaded.
• The software licensing agreement contract record in Conga CLM contains at least two distinct document versions: the counterparty-redlined version and either the original sent version or the latest regenerated template version.
• The contracts manager has checked out the agreement document and has permissions to perform Compare and Merge operations and to check in new document versions.
• If the DISABLE_AUTO_CHECKOUT permission is set to true in Admin Settings, the contracts manager is aware that the result document will not automatically open in a new Word instance after the operation completes; only a confirmation message will appear.

Scenario

A contracts manager at a technology company is working on a software licensing agreement that has gone through two rounds of negotiation. The counterparty has returned a redlined version (Version 3) with proposed changes to the payment terms and warranty clauses. The legal team has also requested that the agreement be regenerated from the latest template (Version 4) to incorporate recently updated standard clauses and new dynamically inserted fields.

The contracts manager needs to first compare the original sent version (Version 2) with the counterparty-redlined version (Version 3) to audit all counterparty changes, and then merge the redlined version (Version 3) with the regenerated version (Version 4) to produce a single consolidated document that incorporates both the accepted negotiated language and the latest template updates.

Trigger

The legal team notifies the contracts manager that the counterparty-redlined version (Version 3) and the newly regenerated template version (Version 4) both exist on the contract record and must be reconciled into a single working document before the agreement can advance to internal approval.

Tasks

Task 1: Compare the original sent version with the counterparty-redlined version

1. Open Microsoft Word and launch the X-Author for Contracts Advanced add-in.
2. Log in to X-Author for Contracts Advanced and open the software licensing agreement contract document.
3. In the Contracts pane, navigate to Work and select Compare. If Compare is not visible under the Work tab, click the More icon and select Compare from the menu.
4. In the Select a version to compare or merge from dropdown, select Version 2 (the original sent version).
5. In the Select a version to compare or merge with dropdown, select Version 3 (the counterparty-redlined version).
6. Click Compare. A new Microsoft Word instance opens displaying the Compare Result document in Insert Comments and Track Changes mode. The document is automatically locked by the contracts manager. Tracked changes in Version 2 are accepted and the counterparty's changes from Version 3 are shown as tracked changes.
   Note: If one of the versions being compared is the currently open document, the result does not open in a new Microsoft Word instance — it appears in the current instance instead.
7. Unprotect the Compare Result document to enable editing. For guidance on unprotecting a document, see Locking and Unlocking Documents.
8. Review each tracked change in the Compare Result document. Right-click a tracked change comment and select Accept Change or Reject Change based on the contracts manager's negotiation decision.
9. Note the counterparty's proposed changes to the payment terms and warranty clauses for incorporation in the subsequent merge operation. The Compare Result document itself does not need to be checked in; it serves as a reference document only.

Task 2: Merge the counterparty-redlined version with the regenerated template version

1. Return to the original contract document in X-Author for Contracts Advanced.
2. In the Contracts pane, navigate to Work and select Compare.
3. In the Select a version to compare or merge from dropdown, select Version 3 (the counterparty-redlined version).
4. In the Select a version to compare or merge with dropdown, select Version 4 (the latest regenerated template version).
5. Click Merge. A new Microsoft Word instance opens displaying the Merge Result document in Insert Comments and Track Changes mode. The document is automatically locked by the contracts manager. Tracked changes from both versions are shown simultaneously. Where both versions contain changes to the same smart field, Version 4's (revised) changes are retained.
6. Unprotect the Merge Result document to enable editing.
7. Review all tracked changes in the Merge Result document. For each tracked change, right-click the comment and select Accept Change or Reject Change:
   • Accept counterparty changes to the payment terms and warranty clauses that were agreed during negotiation.
   • Accept template updates from the regenerated version (Version 4) that introduce updated standard clauses and new fields.
   • Reject any counterparty changes that were not accepted during negotiation.
8. Review any comments retained in the Merge Result document. Note that the original document's comments take precedence in a merge and are retained in the output. If comments from earlier rounds should not appear in the final version, remove them manually before checking in.
   Note: If the document contains date-type content controls, the merge may cause some smart fields to lose their content control boundary. This is a known Microsoft Word behavior. Review all smart fields after merging to confirm their integrity before check-in.
9. Make any additional required edits to the Merge Result document. The contracts manager can use the full range of X-Author operations available in the locked document state, including Preview Reconcile, Mark Clause, Mark Field, Update from CLM, Validate Fields, Update Fields, Update Clauses, and Promote Clause.
10. Check in the Merge Result document to Conga CLM to create a new version of the contract document — the consolidated, negotiation-ready version of the software licensing agreement.

Result

The contracts manager has completed both the Compare and Merge workflows without modifying any of the original source documents. Version 2, Version 3, and Version 4 remain intact on the contract record in their original states.

The Compare Result provided a clear, auditable view of all changes the counterparty introduced between Version 2 and Version 3, informing the contracts manager's acceptance and rejection decisions.

The checked-in Merge Result document is now stored as a new version on the contract record in Conga CLM. It incorporates the accepted counterparty negotiated language from Version 3 and the latest template structure and standard clauses from Version 4, giving the contracts team a single consolidated document that reflects both the negotiated position and the current template standard.

Next Steps

• After check-in, advance the Contract Agreement record to the internal approval stage using the consolidated merged document as the version under review.
• If comments were present in the Merge Result document and were not removed before check-in, address them in a follow-up editing session before routing the document for signature.
• Validate all smart fields in the merged document by using the Validate Fields operation available in the locked document state, to confirm that date-type and other content controls retained their boundaries after the merge.
• If any smart fields lost their content control boundary during the merge due to Microsoft Word's behavior with date-type content controls, use the Clause Library or Doc Clauses tab to re-mark or reinsert the affected clauses and fields.

Tips and Best Practices

• Run the Compare operation first before merging. Reviewing the Compare Result gives the contracts manager a clear understanding of all counterparty changes before proceeding to the more complex merge operation, reducing the risk of inadvertently accepting or rejecting changes in the Merge Result.
• Neither Compare nor Merge modifies the original source documents. Both operations produce a new third document. Always work in the result document and check in only the finalized result, never the source versions.
• When working with Microsoft Word 2019, be aware that the merged document contains changes from both documents simultaneously. If both versions have changes in the same location, the behavior may be unpredictable. Review such sections with extra care and consult the legal team if the correct resolution is not clear.
• Remove comments from the Merge Result document before checking it in if those comments should not be visible to internal approvers or the counterparty in subsequent rounds. The original document's comments are retained in the merged output by default, as this is Microsoft Word's behavior.
• If the DISABLE_AUTO_CHECKOUT permission is set to true in Admin Settings, the result document will not open automatically after the Compare or Merge operation. In this case, locate and open the result document manually from the contract record in Conga CLM.
• The Compare and Merge features support documents containing repeat sections and tables with smart or read-only fields, but only when using the supported merge server endpoint. Confirm with your administrator that the correct endpoint is configured before using these features on documents with complex table structures.

Related Topics

• Comparing and Merging Agreement Documents
• Locking and Unlocking Documents
• Admin Settings for X-Author for Contracts Advanced
• Promoting Clauses to Clause Library
• Using the Clause Library for a Contract