Two product descriptions look identical to me; is checking by eye enough or should I use a tool?
Use the tool. Your eye reads whole words at once and fills in what it expects, so it skips an extra full stop or a lowercase l in place of the digit 1. The comparison only reports that two texts are identical when every character matches, and when something differs it points to the word itself. It takes seconds.
When this question comes up
- You copied a product description to a second store and want to be sure nothing changed on the way.
- Your copywriter sent the 'final version' and you want to know whether it is the one you approved.
- You have two similar products and suspect one still carries an old description.
What the eye misses
We tried a two-line description, 'Fresh Saudi dates 1 kg' then 'Medium roast', against copies that look exactly the same.
A copy that matches character for character: the message 'The two texts are identical with these settings. No differences.'
A copy with a lowercase l in place of the 1: word comparison gives Added 1, Removed 1 and marks Fresh Saudi dates [-1-]{+l+} kg, with the second line unchanged.
A copy of 'Fresh Saudi dates, 1 kg' with a full stop added at the end: line comparison gives Added 1, Removed 1, of which modified 1, Unchanged 1.
The same pair by words pinpoints it: Fresh Saudi dates, 1 kg{+.+}.
These differences are real even when they look trivial. A spreadsheet lookup or any check that compares characters sees two different texts, whatever your eye says.
How to check in seconds
- Open Text comparison, paste the first description in the first box and the second in the other.
- Short texts are compared automatically as you paste, so you do not need to press Compare.
- If the identical message appears, you are done. If a difference shows, choose Words to see the exact word inside the paragraph.
If the difference is only spaces
The copies may match in every word and differ only in spacing, such as a trailing space. Word comparison counts that under 'Whitespace-only differences' instead of added or removed, so you know the content is the same. To strip those spaces from the description before publishing, clean it with the Whitespace cleaner.
Why the tool does not go easy
Because 'are they identical?' needs a strict answer. The tool does not merge look-alike letters, ignore Arabic diacritics or treat a comma as optional, so when it says identical, they are. Ignoring English letter case or whitespace are options you switch on yourself, and then a different message reminds you that the match is after ignoring.
Common questions
Does it work for Arabic descriptions?
Yes, and it catches differences such as ة in place of ه, or a missing hamza on أ.
Is there a length limit?
Descriptions are far too short to cause trouble; automatic comparison works up to 20,000 characters combined.
Is the description saved?
No, it stays in your browser only.