My supplier sent a new price list; how do I quickly see which items changed price?
Paste the old list in the first box and the new one in the second, one item per line, and keep the comparison level on Lines. Every item whose price moved shows up as a minus then plus pair with the old and new numbers highlighted; items that did not change are simply counted as unchanged.
Get both lists into the same shape
Suppliers send prices as a WhatsApp message, an Excel sheet or a PDF. Copy only the name and price, so each item sits on its own line, like 'Coffee 50'. Do the same with your saved old list. What matters most is that both lists keep the items in the same order, because the comparison follows order: if the supplier moved an item from the top to the bottom, it will look as if it was removed in one place and added in another.
If your supplier's order differs from yours, sort both lists the same way with the Line sorter first. After sorting, matching items line up and only real changes remain in the result.
Example: four items, two new prices
Old list: Coffee 50, Tea 20, Dates 35, Cardamom 90, one per line.
New list: Coffee 55, Tea 20, Dates 35, Cardamom 95.
Summary: Added 2, Removed 2, of which modified lines 2, Unchanged 2. Two items changed price; tea and dates stayed the same.
Inside each modified pair only the number is highlighted: the word 'Coffee' stays plain, 50 is struck through and 55 is underlined. You read the result at a glance instead of checking lines against each other by eye.
If the supplier also added a new item at the end, such as 'Saffron 120', the summary becomes Added 3, Removed 2, of which modified 2, Unchanged 2. The new item is an added line with no removed line opposite it, so you can tell it is new rather than repriced.
Steps in the tool
- Open Text comparison and paste your old list into 'Original text' and the supplier's list into 'Changed text'.
- Keep the comparison level on Lines, which suits lists best.
- Leave 'Hide unchanged lines far from a difference' on, so stable items far from any change fold into one row that says how many unchanged lines it hides.
- Read the modified pairs, then copy or download the plain-text result to keep a record of the change.
Mistakes that spoil the result
- Spelling an item two ways: matching is literal, so 'Cardamon' and 'Cardamom' differ and the line shows as modified even though the price did not move.
- Arabic digits in one list and Western digits in the other: '٥٠' is not '50' to the comparison. Make them match first.
- Adding the currency in one list only: '50 SAR' and '50' are different lines.
- A stray space at the end of a line: turn on 'Ignore whitespace differences' so steady items do not look changed.
The pricing decision is still yours: the tool shows which items went up and by how much, it does not work out your margin.
Common questions
Do I need to sort both lists?
Only if the supplier changed the order of items. If the order is the same, paste them straight in.
My list is very long; will it still work?
Yes, line comparison handles lists with thousands of items. When the two texts together pass 20,000 characters, the comparison no longer starts on its own, so press Compare.
Are my prices sent anywhere?
No, the comparison runs inside your browser and neither text is stored.