How to configure Comparison Types and Outputs: Remove options or set initial default

Comparison Types and outputs are at the core of the Draftable Legal experience. While we strive to offer as much flexibility for users in Comparison Types, many users will not need all the options provided. Likewise, organizations may wish to stop users from exporting certain comparison outputs via the ‘Next Actions’ commands or in 1-Click Compare workflows. From Draftable v24.7.200, administrators can set default and / or remove Comparison Types via the Windows Registry or using Group policy.

This article guides IT Administrators in configuring Draftable Legal to remove any unwanted Comparison Types and / or to change the default Comparison Type from ‘Redline in Draftable’

To learn more about Comparison Types and their use, please see this article.   

How to update the initial default Comparison Type

Administrators can use the InitialComparisonOutput registry key to set an initial Comparison Type default. The default options are:

Comparison Type	Value for InitialComparisonOutput registry key
Redline in Draftable	Redline
Redline in Word	RedlineDocx
Tracked Changes in Word	TrackChangesWord
Side by Side	Draftable
Redline in Excel	ExcelRedline
Native in MS Office	NativeOffice

Once set, this will set the selected Comparison Type as the default choice in the New Comparison Window upon starting Draftable. If the user selects a different Comparison Type, this will be ‘sticky’ and remains selected until the user either changes it again or closes the application. 

Removing unwanted Comparison Types

Many organizations exclusively use either Tracked Changes or Redline in Word as their preferred word output. Likewise, organizations will often have a preference for either Redline in Excel, Side by Side or MS Office Native for Excel comparisons. With this in mind, organizations can configure Draftable Legal to only provide those Comparison Types and outputs needed by their users. This can be done via Group Policy or in the Windows Registry. 

Removing Comparison Type and Output options via Group Policy

Administrators can update the default value of the following Group Policy Options to remove Comparison Types from the New Comparison Window, Next Actions menu, and 1-Click Compare menu.

Comparison Type	Group Policy Option
Redline in Draftable	Enable Redline PDF Output
Excel Redline	Enable Excel Redline Output
Redline in Word	Enable Redline DOCX Output
Tracked Changes in Word	Enable Track Changes in Word Output
Side by Side	Enable Side-By-Side Output Comparison
Changed Pages Only PDF export	Enable Changed Pages Output
Native in MS Office	Enable Native Office Output

Removing Comparison Type options via the Windows Registry 

The following registry keys can be configured to exclude Comparison Types and outputs from the New Comparison Window, Next Actions menu, and 1-Click Compare menu (with the default value 0 showing the Comparison Type / output).

Comparison Type	Registry Key (set to 1 to remove)
Redline in Draftable	IsRedlineOutputEnabled
Excel Redline	IsExcelRedlineOutputEnabled
Redline in Word	IsRedlineDocxOutputEnabled
Tracked Changes in Word	IsTrackChangesWordOutputEnabled
Side by Side	IsDraftableOutputEnabled
Changed Pages Only PDF export	IsChangedPagesOutputEnabled
Native in MS Office	IsNativeOfficeOutputEnabled