Draftable Business Ongoing Release Notes

Please note: this article is for non-legal Draftable Business customers. Draftable Legal customers can find a record of all product updates in Release Log: Draftable Legal. Descriptive articles for each month’s Draftable Legal releases are also available in our Release Notes section. If you require any specific explanations on the changes or features, please get in touch with us at support@draftable.com

Release Notes

October 28, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Added a startup screen that shows the Draftable version and what Draftable is doing while it starts, including when it is checking your license
The HTTP Listener service installed by the system-wide MSI is now code-signed by Draftable, for environments where application control only allows signed files

Bugfixes:

Fixed every comparison failing after a computer woke from sleep, or Draftable started, before the network connected
Fixed uninstalling Draftable leaving the Excel add-in registered
Fixed PowerPoint comparisons occasionally crashing when several ran at the same time, for example in Bulk Compare

October 21, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Added an option to rename comparison tabs from the right-click menu
MSI upgrades now close a running Draftable instance before installation, including Intune installations running as SYSTEM
Draftable now opens without waiting for the license check to complete
Added a clearer connection error when the license server cannot be reached

Bugfixes:

Fixed system-wide MSI installations failing on non-English versions of Windows
Fixed an unresponsive comparison engine not restarting automatically
Fixed Bulk Compare exports delaying other work in Draftable
Fixed misaligned toolbar buttons in Bulk Compare Pairs and replaced the sort button’s shuffle icon with a clearer sort icon
Fixed the main window losing focus when a focused tab is moved to a separate window
Fixed keyboard shortcuts no longer working after closing a tab with Ctrl+W
Fixed accents in PDF text separating from their letters
Fixed some PDF comparisons failing when right-to-left text contains emoji or special characters

October 14, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Rebuilt the main window with browser-style tabs that can be reordered, moved into separate windows, docked again, and scrolled when many tabs are open
Added an All tabs menu at the left of the tab strip for searching, opening, and closing tabs
Added keyboard shortcuts for All tabs (Ctrl+Shift+A), closing a tab (Ctrl+W), and reopening a closed comparison (Ctrl+Shift+T)
Added in-session access to the last 10 closed comparisons
Added an option to save, copy, or email outputs from all open comparisons in the current window at once
Added support for comparing Markdown (.md) files as plain text
Improved automatic version ordering in Bulk Compare, with better filename handling and matching against files already in the grid
Added Sort files into version order and Undo sort controls to Bulk Compare
Side by Side highlighted PDF exports and printed output are now faster and produce smaller files
Updated bundled .NET cryptography components with current security fixes

Bugfixes:

Fixed blurry, stretched, or incorrectly sized windows on high-DPI and mixed-scale monitors
Fixed comparisons failing on locked-down Windows profiles
Fixed obsolete right-click menu entries remaining after a per-user installation was removed

September 15, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Added English (UK), Danish, Italian, and Welsh interface languages
Draftable can now span multiple monitors and remembers its window size
Extended the comparison worker timeout from 15 to 30 minutes for longer comparisons
The Draftable executable now shows its exact version in Explorer > Properties > Details
Updated the Apryse PDF conversion engine to version 12.1

Bugfixes:

Fixed a conversion error appearing after swapping sides during conversion
Fixed license checks not polling reliably and the expiry date displaying incorrectly on the final license day
Fixed Windows 11 context menu entries disappearing after uninstalling and reinstalling Draftable
Fixed Excel date and number formatting not matching the source workbook
Fixed incorrect row alignment on Excel sheets without a strong key column
Fixed very tall Excel sheets rendering blank instead of paginating
Fixed Word LISTNUM inline numbering being split incorrectly
Fixed Word tables running off the page
Fixed move detection crashing on empty runs
Fixed PowerPoint comparisons crashing on slides with empty math runs
Fixed PDF-to-Word conversion dropping text hidden behind images

Add-ins:

[Outlook Add-in] Fixed unsupported attachments and inline images being sent to Draftable

September 10, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Updated the bundled .NET Windows Desktop Runtime to the latest patch

August 6, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Draftable actions now appear directly in the top-level Windows 11 right-click context menu
Tabs now resize dynamically and overflow cleanly when space is limited
Added a docked Recent Files pane, with shift-click and control-click range selection
Sending content as older or newer now reuses the active Draftable tab instead of opening a new one
Clearer “unable to complete comparison” message, with a checkbox to be notified when the problem is fixed
Rebuilt the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook add-ins to improve reliability
The machine-wide MSI now installs the HTTP listener by default
New DisableWin11ContextMenu policy to hide Draftable from the top-level Windows 11 right-click menu
License activation now works through authenticated corporate proxies
Upgraded the application updater (Velopack) to 1.2.0

Bugfixes:

Fixed the export dialog header being clipped on high-DPI monitors
Fixed duplicate document preparation pipelines running at the same time
Fixed side-by-side PDF export hanging on large PDFs
Fixed a crash in the comparison engine when running side-by-side comparisons on large or complex PDFs
Fixed export settings differing between single and bulk comparisons
Fixed comparisons failing after the machine had been asleep
Fixed conversion engine changes not taking effect until the application was restarted
Fixed a startup failure on locked-down machines caused by the Windows Event Log provider
Fixed the grammar of the German “Comparing” label
Fixed the Bulk Compare button staying disabled after dragging a file onto an unmatched row
Fixed the page break cleaner missing the final page break
Fixed comments not appearing in the change list

Algorithm reliability:

Fixed Word comments not matching when their DurableIds differ
Fixed whitespace changes inside SmartTag, sdt, or hyperlink wrappers not being detected
Fixed an error when deleting a table of contents containing an sdt in the field span
Fixed a crash on <w:sdt> in a deleted paragraph mark
Fixed a crash while parsing document style strings

Add-ins:

[Word Add-in] Fixed the first of two open documents being dropped from a comparison
[Office Add-ins] Fixed PowerPoint and Excel selection comparison failures; Excel extracts now include calculated values

July 2, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Comparisons are now significantly faster, especially when running several comparisons in the same session
More accurate table comparisons when tables have been split or combined between the two documents
Renamed the “Smart file ordering” setting to “Automatic version ordering” and added a supporting label, with no change to behaviour
Document engine updated to Aspose.Words 26.6 for improved output fidelity

Bugfixes:

Fixed custom output filenames not being retained when settings are upgraded
Fixed Bulk Compare progress not reaching 100%
Fixed shift-click range selection of changes not working on the first attempt
Fixed an incorrect “Start a Trial” link
Fixed a duplicate “New Comparison” tab and an unwanted welcome pop-up on managed installs where these are disabled by policy
Fixed the Windows Service version endpoint
Fixed garbled text appearing in some comparisons

June 10, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Rebuilt settings interface with logical grouping, iconography, and clearer labeling to make it easier to find each setting
In-app settings search navigates directly to section headings and their related controls
Added a Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut to open a new comparison
Unified Recent Files picker now available across both Single and Bulk modes
Swap-sides button added to every comparison mode, with clear-all available in Single mode
The “update ready” notification no longer repeats on every launch
Headless license activation via the EXE using DraftableDesktop.exe --activate-license "<KEY>"
Application updates now always apply deltas, reducing download sizes on slow or metered connections
Inserting or deleting a single row in an Excel file no longer causes all subsequent rows to appear as changed
Embedded browser engine updated to CefSharp 147 for the latest security patches

Bugfixes:

Fixed the Cancel Export button not responding in Bulk Compare
Fixed action buttons being truncated in the Compare Selector
Fixed the last row being clipped in the Compare Selector
Fixed the Recent Files dialog appearing behind the Compare Selector
Fixed incorrect Add button text in the Compare Selector
Fixed One-to-Many headers not staying fixed when swapping sides
Fixed comparisons failing on documents containing corrupt embedded images
Fixed tables embedded in pictures not being compared correctly
Fixed PDF text extraction on very wide, slightly rotated bounding boxes
Fixed a grammar and spacing edge case involving misplaced spaces

May 5, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Removed an obsolete .NET 10 runtime check from the installer

April 30, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Three Bulk Compare modes now available from the starting screen: Matched Pairs, One-to-Many, and Timeline
Cleaner page-break handling reduces false-positive page breaks in PDFs
Textbox content no longer cropped in converted PDFs
Admin-installed add-ins now shown in the Settings UI
Upgraded log4net to address a security advisory

Bugfixes:

Fixed tab-switch flicker in the comparison viewer
Fixed One-Click Compare invocations accumulating into a single session instead of running independently
Fixed reserved footnote IDs in strict-schema documents
Fixed hyphen-only changes not being detected in side-by-side compare
Fixed stray instrText when accepting complex field deletion
Fixed empty hyperlinks in comments causing decoder crashes
Fixed HTML list parsing (“Expected Item in Unordered List”)
Fixed out-of-bounds lookup in table column consolidation
Fixed sdt elements appearing in comments
[Word COM Add-in] Fixed documents with unsaved edits no longer prompting to save

April 2, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Improved responsiveness when opening older Excel files (.xls)

Bugfixes:

Fixed “Compare Open” not working for Word
Fixed error when emailing comparison output

March 11, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Upgrade Aspose family to 26.02

March 10, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Added troubleshooting setting to clear the Add-ins cache

Bugfixes:

Fixed page rotation being applied twice on paths

February 17, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Added buttons to copy inserted or deleted text when selecting a section containing both types of changes
[Word Add-in] Fixed file name not being read correctly
Added support to clear files after running Bulk Compare when the general setting is enabled

Bugfixes:

Fixed settings window update status not reflected in UI; update can be interrupted
Fixed reserved characters not accounted for when ignoring whitespace

January 29, 2026

Features & Improvements:

Enable swap button when there is only one document in the launcher
Improved speed of PDF compatibility transform
DOCX Text Transform: handle comments
Exclude comments from side-by-side comparison
Refactor: make IOutputExporters responsible for name trimming
Added Logs tab inside the application

Bugfixes:

Fixed WPF Progress binding causing read-only property exception in Direct Export window
Fixed presentation layout for RTL languages
Handle empty paragraphs in slide alignment
Handle block-level bookmarks during complex field processing
Fixed UI issues in the “Improve Draftable” window

December 29, 2025

Features & Improvements:

Export side-by-side comparison with change log
Fixed pinned taskbar icon losing visual icon after upgrade due to shortcut pointing to MSI-cached icon path

Bugfixes:

Tolerate malformed lvlText in numbering definitions
Fixed 1-Click not working when compare selector is already opened
Fixed invalid/broken Knowledge Base links

December 10, 2025

Features & Improvements:

Added setting that updates UX to allow dual window UX.

Bugfixes:

Fixed an issue where export action could not be triggered if any of the documents was not ready.
Fixed splitting of surrogate pairs in delIns cleanup.
Fixed handling of list marker change events in pptx speaker notes.
Fixed layout misalignment in colourised document transformation.
Fixed numbering mismatch with w:vanish paragraphs when compareHiddenText=false.

November 13, 2025

Bugfixes:

Fixed an issue where a watermark could appear on PDF outputs.

November 11, 2025

Features & Improvements:

Improved placement of changed text around deleted paragraphs.
Added support for comparing SmartTag content.

Ease of Use

Draftable now starts in the user’s last non-maximized window size.
New setting to open the comparison viewer in a new tab (rather than the same tab).

Bugfixes:Algorithm Reliability

Fixed several “unable to compare” errors related to:
- Move detection overlaps.
- Malformed SVG content.
- Mismatched block- vs run-level sdt markers.
- Preprocessing of textbox content within a Table of Contents.
Fixed an issue with sync scrolling in Side-by-Side comparisons when using threaded runners.

October 23, 2025

Bugfixes:

Prevented crashes when comparing text input vs text file.

October 21, 2025

Features & Improvements:Administrator Features

Added the option for organizations to include an organization-level GUID in telemetry for admin usage reporting.
Enforced logging of new settings to telemetry (when organization telemetry is enabled).

Bugfixes:

Updated the update dialog to avoid cut-off text.
Prevented poor layouts stemming from interactions with table column changes.
Ensured results open in the source tab rather than the most recent Draftable window.
Fixed preprocessing failure when an invalid output type was selected.

September 29, 2025

Features & Improvements:

Added telemetry events for window size changes.
You can now reduce the Draftable window to one quarter of the screen.
New option to display the Draftable UI in additional languages.

Bugfixes:

The original file type is now logged in compare execution telemetry.
Side-by-side algorithm parameters now reach the text alignment stage correctly.
Improved parsing of names containing “&” in the Word Add-in.
Text normalization now tolerates invalid code points.
Draftable now remembers your preferred default window size after resizing.
Detaching a tab no longer breaks the original window.

September 18, 2025

Hotfix:

Resolved an issue in the Draftable Word Add-in that caused unexpected template prompts to appear when using Word.

September 11, 2025

Hotfix:

DD-2604: Redirect Draftable subscription link to the current URL.

September 4, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Added a setting to enable extra CEF logging for diagnostics
Restored the ability to resize the app down to the original minimum window size (pre-25.8.0)

Bugfixes:

Improved email generation to avoid Outlook-related issues
Fixed the Excel Add-in archive not extracting properly
[Telemetry] Now logs the source of files added to the app
Resolved the inability to resize the window while on the Comparison tab
Prevented unintended modifications to Normal.dotm unless explicitly requested

August 15, 2025

Features & Improvements:

Tabbed UI: Redesigned the app to use tabs instead of multiple windows
Unified window: Merged the Launcher and Viewer into a single window
Viewer UX: Remember the expanded/collapsed state of the Summary panel when switching view types
Diagnostics: Setting to enable extra logging from CEF
Compare quality: Reduce false positives where mixed numbering is interpreted as text

Bugfixes:

Wrap long lines when converting TXT to PDF for comparison
Handle LISTNUM fields with invalid levels
Workaround for ZIP corruption caused by empty XML parts (DD-2454).
Word Add-in: Avoid hang when the source document is completely empty

June 27, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Resolved pipe-handling issues affecting MSI installs.
Viewer: added “Re-run Compare” command, allowing users to relaunch a comparison directly from the results window (intended to be used with filters)
Cleans cached values in header/footer numbering fields for more accurate numbering
Compare window now opens in maximised state by default

June 20, 2025

Features & Improvements:

[Word Add-in] Context menu actions no longer modify the Normal.dotm template.
Introduced a keyboard shortcut to quickly navigate to the next change in comparison results.

Bugfixes:

Fixed issue preventing export logs from generating.
Resolved unresponsive behaviour in the “Export Error Logs” feature.

June 11, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Improved case-sensitive comparison with better handling of <w:caps> styles.

Bugfixes:

Updated tooltip behaviour for the system tray icon.
Fixed serialization logic for nested complex field instructions in documents.

May 30, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Embedded version information into ADML and ADMX templates.
[Word Add-in] Added command to load all open Word files into Draftable.

Bugfixes:

Added configuration to limit the number of runner processes for performance stability.

May 13, 2025

Bugfixes:

Fixed issues where email logs were not being generated properly.
Fixed issues with 1-Click and Bulk Compare producing invalid Side-by-Side outputs.
Fixed an issue in the Group Policy template.

May 5, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Administrators can now define custom tags for the change list.

Bugfixes:

Prevented follow-up requests from failing after an invalid background request.
Fixed bug where certain Burmese script characters were converted to newlines.
Resolved app freezes during update processes.
Fixed issues with output filenames for files sharing the same name.

April 1, 2025

Bugfixes:

Various fixes to group policy

March 31, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Improved handling of shared drive file loading to prevent resource errors.
Group temporary files by comparison for easier troubleshooting.
Removed the “One or more documents are in an older format” warning.
Right-hand menu in viewer is now sticky between sessions (e.g. change list state persists).
Enhanced clarity in the 1-Click Compare error dialog.
New setting to ignore differences between curly and straight apostrophes and quotation marks.
Admin-installed Office Add-ins are now visible in Settings.
Admins can now create custom tags for the change list.

Bugfixes:

Improved handling of numPicBullet definitions using mc:AlternateContent.
Fixed false positive paragraph changes caused by bookmark tags in tables.
PDF icon now properly displays when PDF files are compared.
Resolved system verification errors related to the “Microsoft Windows: Context menu” feature.

February 27, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Added PDF compatibility toggle.
Improved comparison accuracy for Text Boxes.

Bugfixes:

Fixed export bug where HTML was generated despite DOCX being selected.
Fixed missing file extensions in ZIP exports.
Now handles footnoteColumns attribute in section properties.
Disabled changes display when “Compare Textboxes” is turned off.
Fixed indentation flattening in PDF compatibility mode.
Prevented incorrect inheritance of paragraph properties in deleted content.
Fixed comparison errors due to table issues in certain documents.
Fixed comparison failures for documents with comments.

January 30, 2025

Bugfixes:

Fixed orphaned comments in document outputs.
Removed invalid XML characters when converting from TXT to DOCX.

January 28, 2025

Improvements & Features:

Automatically convert XLSEL to XLSX when loading from the Excel Add-in; now also supported in Side-by-Side view.
Multiple comparisons can now be emailed at once.
Improved filename handling and enforced naming conventions.
Improved comparison of footnote numbering.
Treated soft hyphens as zero-weight characters in comparisons.

Bugfixes:

Updated tooltip wording in General Settings.
Resolved file loading issues.
Adjusted fixed-height row layout for revised tables.
Improved text alignment logic in numbering detection.
Ignored quotation mark-only changes in comparisons.
Fixed numbering ID alignment for consistency.

December 23, 2024

Bugfixes:

Fixed file naming recognition for Redline in Word when launched from the Word Add-in.
Resolved document comparison failure bugs.

November 6, 2024

Bugfixes:

Fixed issue where Office Add-ins were not properly installed by the MSI installer.

October 31, 2024

Improvements & Features:

Added a certificate verification option for Office Add-ins.
Extended SharePoint site search to return more than 25 results.
Cleaned up help article links in the action pane and ribbon UI.
[Epona] Added support for drag and drop from the Outlook extension.
1-Click Compare now supports setting a default “save to” location.
Improved filename truncation logic for OneDrive, NetDocuments, and viewer displays.

Bugfixes:

Improved performance on single-core machines by optimizing change list generation.
Fixed app-blocking issue when iManage files are selected from recent files.
Resolved problem where customized OCR settings were not applied.
Improved handling of DOCX style changes in Aspose engine.
Upgraded Aspose.Words to version 24.10.
Fixed failure to load the Changes Report when Summary Page is included in Redline.
Resolved mismatch between displayed name and actual filename for Outlook attachments.
Fixed PDF generation error when footnotes/endnotes comparison was disabled.
Addressed lingering password prompt during comparison after entering correct credentials.
Fixed issue where password-protected files wouldn’t open during Bulk Compare.

October 21, 2024

Improvements & Features:

1-Click compare improvements: Allow users to set specific ‘save to’ location default for 1-Click Compare

Bugfixes:

Addressed an issue where the refresh function was interfering with the comparison process.

October 17, 2024

Bugfixes:

Fixed a signing issue for the MSI installer introduced in version 24.10.0.

October 10, 2024

Improvements & Features:

Startup Notifications Setting: Added a new setting and Group Policy option to disable Windows startup notifications for a smoother launch experience.
Application Exit Option: Users can now exit the application conveniently from the file menu.
Version Information Sync: Ensures that the Windows system always has the latest Draftable version information.

Bugfixes:

Resolved issues with change list loading errors and file handling during comparisons.
Fixed various errors affecting the generation and display of comparison reports and document metadata.
Improved the handling of settings when reloading file comparison definitions.

September 27, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Windows Shell extension not installed for Per-User installer.

September 26, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Option added to default to the last saved location when saving locally.
Local files are now reloaded before comparison if the file content changes.
Users can mark off changes in the change list.
Bulk actions are now available for status tags in the change list.

Bug Fixes:

File Obfuscator failed to obfuscate files.

September 6, 2024

Bug Fixes:

False negative on the first page header.
Compare error on handling complex fields.
Inserted signature not showing up on the change list.
Password-protected XLSX documents are not detected properly.

New Features & Improvements:

Removed suffix (.docx) from appending twice on renamed files when copying to the clipboard.
File Obfuscator tool now asks for two files.
Include names of compared files in the changes report.
Added option to save output to the last save location.

August 22, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue where certain settings were not showing in the general tab.

August 13, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Improved table column matching.
Tracked settings configured by Group Policy in the telemetry.

Bug Fixes:

Table comparison error resolved.
False negatives for deleted comments in comparisons fixed.

July 17, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Conversion engine setting changes are now logged to telemetry.
Resolved UI issue where the Change List was not loading properly.

July 3, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Corrected several false positives and wrong descriptions of changes in the change list.

June 20, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Added NGEN support to reduce memory consumption on multi-user systems.

Bug Fixes:

Start automatically with Windows is not working.
Updated the File Open to remember the last used location.
Incorrect numbering changes resolved.

June 5, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Renamed comparison options.
Certain changes are now excluded when all elements are disabled in comparison options.

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issues with changes made to Word settings after using Draftable.

May 29, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Administrators can now lock certain profile settings when creating new profiles.
Implemented registry and Group Policy support for 1-Click Compare, including options to control 1-Click export settings.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed issue where chromium logs would appear next to the selected document.
Filename trimming corrected.
Resolved cutoff issue with tables during comparison.
Fixed compare error with bullets and numbering disabled.

May 14, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Updated insertion colors in Side-by-Side exports from green to blue.
Improved error message when no valid 1-Click action is defined.

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issues with next actions for 1-Click Compare not appearing properly.
Fixed font issues affecting highlight boxes.

May 2, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Added missing Group Policy templates.

April 25, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Introduced 1-Click Compare.
Added next action menu to Side-By-Side comparisons.

Bug Fixes:

Filename output now works correctly without a summary page.
Various issues with dotm template prompts in Word Add-In resolved.

March 27, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Filenames are now correctly trimmed for custom filename output.

March 25, 2024

Bug Fixes:

The application now properly informs users when a comparison fails.

March 21, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Small UI improvements made to the side by side viewer.

March 18, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Enhanced interactions with the Word API.
Telemetry now passes the ComparisonID to the viewer.
The ribbon menu is now expanded by default.
Added a colon to automated emails for comparison outputs.
Speed improvements for DOCX comparisons, with an average performance boost of 6.5%.

Bug Fixes:

Side-by-Side users can now turn off moves in the settings.
Fixed the “key not present in the dictionary” error in TryGetNumbering.
Resolved issues with the legacy theme not being supported for Side-by-Side comparisons.

March 13, 2024

Improvements:

Enhanced the installation process for Add-ins.

March 6, 2024

Improvements:

Fixed an issue where input files were not filled when the app was triggered without running.

March 23, 2024

Bug Fix:

Fixed an error when comparing documents with hidden text.

March 22, 2024

Bug Fix:

Resolved an issue where text inputs could not be compared.

February 15, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Fixed the startup option to ensure proper behavior on Windows startup.
Bookmarks are now encoded as the same character.
Extended support for UNC file paths.
Font size threshold setting is now visible to standard users.

February 13, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Custom output filename structure now available.
Fixed error parsing DOCX indentation values.

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue where the file area would stay in spin/load mode when closing the multiple file selector without files.

February 8, 2024

Improvements:

Small improvement to a previous bug fix, making it more efficient.

February 5, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Resolved a conflict between Microsoft Edge WebView2 and Chromium that caused issues.

January 22, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Compare output now shows ‘hidden’ text as a change.
Users can now drag and drop text directly into the box without clicking the “input text” button.
Introduced a silent launch option that prevents the New Compare window from showing on startup.
Added the ability to compare text from Word.
Users can now collapse the ‘next actions’ menu on the right side of the viewer.
The default ‘save to’ location in the Windows file browser is now the same as the comparison input file location.
Updated the Squirrel installer to reflect an app size estimate of 2GB.
Display the installed version of add-ins in the settings.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed error when exporting Side-by-Side comparisons for certain documents.
Allowed scrolling for System Verification results to avoid UI cutoff.
Resolved issues with exporting Tracked Changes from Side-by-Side comparisons.
Fixed error handling numbering issues in DOCX comparisons.
Resolved conversion issues with .doc files to PDF where files could not be found.

January 12, 2024

New Features & Improvements:

Enabled drag-and-drop text directly into the comparison input box.
The default ‘save to’ location in Windows file browser is now the same as the input file location.
Added support for footnotes and endnotes in the change list.
Added support for other run content in the Change List.

Bug Fixes:

Stopped using Office apps from the main process to avoid errors.
Fixed issues with exporting Side-by-Side comparisons for certain documents.
Allowed scrolling for System Verification results to avoid UI cutoff.
Small refactor of temporary file management.
Fixed issue where errors during Side-by-Side export for email caused app freezes.

January 5, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Improved sequential processing of PowerPoint operations.
Stopped using Office apps from the main process to avoid errors.

December 20, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Export logs option now works after system verification.
Incorrect timestamps in the summary page resolved.
Fixed UI issues for long profile names in the settings menu.
Fixed linking Sentry reports with the license.
Resolved incorrect filename issues for files dragged and dropped from Outlook email attachments.
Alert during application auto-start added.
Addressed long profile name cutting off the comparison type in the launcher.
Fixed privacy disclaimer window cutting off text.
Tooltip for Draftable Desktop activation dialog no longer appears on top of other windows.
Resolved application exit issues with Squirrel AbandonedMutexException.

New Features & Improvements:

Added “Side by Side as Tracked Changes” as a new comparison type.
Disabled the “Compare Version(s)” button in the web extension when list versioning is not supported.
Aspose is now available via the general settings tab (not set as the default).
Group Policy support added to disable the desktop shortcut.
Updated viewer to version 3.6.20.
Group Policy added to enable/disable Draftable launching upon startup.
Warn users before the app restarts after an update.

December 4, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

GDPR Compliance:
- Sanitized error reporting data captured in Sentry.
- Sanitized telemetry data.
Draftable Engine used for PDF to DOCX conversions.

Bug Fixes:

AutoCompare fixed when running from CLI.
Document version changes now detected after clicking “Compare.”
Fixed header bug in comparison.

November 20, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

New Comparison window automatically launched after product activation.
Multiple file selection now available in Windows file browser.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed PDF file load timing out on network drives.
Updated image hash not to use MD5.

November 6, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Added support for a third-party library for DOCX to PDF rendering, available in the “Preview Features” tab.
New Comparison window automatically launches after product activation.
Support for loading password-protected Office documents added.
Added a Preview Features tab in settings, accessible via SHIFT + F12.

October 31, 2023

New Features:

Option to keep input files after a comparison is complete.
Group Policy introduced to guide users to contact internal IT for support instead of Draftable Support.
Improvements in handling Structured Document Tags.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed header/footer false negatives in comparisons.
Resolved issue where Word conversion would break due to error overriding Word settings.

October 25, 2023

New Features:

Users can now select input files from a list of recent documents.
Default insertion color changed from “Blue” to “Dark Blue.”

Bug Fixes:

Fixed issue with the Word Add-In not working for file paths containing ”&”.
Resolved issues where the author name in the new comparison window would change when switching comparison types.
Improved error handling when closing Word documents.
Fixed issue where the Compare Result window would get stuck on a spinner when loading output PDFs.
The Word Add-In now displays a warning when attempting to compare an unsaved file.
Fixed app freeze caused by an exception during export.
Resolved an error when running Side-by-Side comparisons for DOCX files, ensuring PDF copies of the original document are created at the correct stage.
Addressed false error timeouts when loading files.
Output filenames are no longer truncated, with the limit extended from 30 to 70 characters.
Profile picker no longer displays for non-legal users.

September 26, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Improved validation of the Comparison Type on the Compare Selector window.
Fixed leaking Word instances.
Fixed patch version for MSI installers.
Resolved issue with Draftable opening Word files when running comparisons.

October 2, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Fixed leaking Word instances.

September 19, 2023

Improvements:

Users can now set content and style changes for Side-by-Side comparisons.

September 15, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Group Policy fix applied.

September 14, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Fixed issue where disabling the PDF warning in Office was not working in certain scenarios.

September 13, 2023

New Features:

Progress bar introduced to indicate loading status during comparisons.
Open link features now supported from the Viewer.
Error dialogs now include an option to export and send logs.
User Desktop settings are now included when exporting logs.
The Viewer now logs custom errors, which are sent to Sentry for troubleshooting.

September 7, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue where the app would encounter an error when Office was not installed.

September 5, 2023

Bug Fixes & Improvements:

Cleaned up Word integration for better diagnostics and future issue resolution.
Extended the app log to include Sentry and telemetry configuration details.
Updated error logs to record the current time zone from Windows during startup.
Fixed NullReferenceException in the Draftable.CompareTool.Updater.WindowsUtils.
Moved PDF generation steps to the progress window for better task execution.

New Features:

Introduced double underline and strikethrough options for markup styling.

August 1, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Relaxed memory limit on Draftable for enhanced performance.

July 26, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Improved handling of TargetInvocationException from the Word API.
Resolved issue where using a simple/default Normal.dotm template triggered Word Macros warnings, by removing all templates before comparison.

July 24, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Optimized handling of the DisableConvertPdfWarning setting to prevent unnecessary changes when already correctly configured.
Created the Word Options key automatically if missing.
Help articles are now linked to issues found by the diagnostic tool.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue where the settings window would become unresponsive when opened for the first time.
Improved performance of the CompareSelector window by reducing lag after closing a comparison.
Various algorithm improvements and cleanups.

July 13, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Updated viewer to latest viewer version.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue with the onboarding statistics step not being readable.
Addressed issues with Word’s Normal.dotm popup warning during comparisons.

July 12, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Introduced a new diagnostic tool to help resolve common support issues.
MSI installers now support versioning.
Added links to relevant knowledge base articles for better in-app guidance.
Viewer ribbon is now maximized by default for better usability.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed various smaller bugs and issues with the comparison dialog.

July 3, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue preventing the creation of Draftable.dotm.

June 29, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Enhanced comparison progress dialog to show steps more clearly.
Updated the viewer to new version.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue causing unknown errors when running Side-by-Side comparisons with one PDF and one Word document.
Resolved AccessViolationException when trying to override Word settings.

June 22, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Added the display of steps in the comparison progress dialog to enhance the visibility of the process.
Improved the handling of document loading, addressing one of the most common bugs reported by support.
Implemented a potential fix for running comparisons when the system language differs from the application language.

Bug Fixes:

Telemetry improvements made based on recent reviews.

June 15, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Resolved text input bugs for smoother operation.

June 8, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Managed Word options to avoid default Microsoft pop-ups during comparisons.

June 7, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Small backend bug fixes applied.

June 1, 2023

New Features:

Extended the Draftable Group Policy template to allow setting auto-updates on/off for per-user and per-user MSI.

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issues with algorithm and comments handling.

May 17, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue where Headers and Footers were not visible in Side-by-Side comparisons for users with a standard license.

May 11, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Fixed the Move From and Move To decoration for improved comparison readability.

May 8, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Introduced a new compare progress dialog with a spinner for better visibility of ongoing comparisons.
Gracefully handle and dispose of in-progress comparison cancellations.
Extended markup customization options, with a feature flag to ignore moves.
Default markup settings now align with Microsoft Word’s style.
Users can now save their preference for opening or saving tracked changes output.
Implemented new techniques for faster performance.
Avoided using the Microsoft Word for preprocessing to improve efficiency.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed the issue where files were removed after a comparison was cancelled.
Several algorithm bug fixes for smoother performance.

May 2, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Resolved issue where it was not possible to save a document to from the streamline view panel.

April 27, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Fixed issue preventing users from selecting files.

April 20, 2023

Bug Fixes:

Fixed issue where the Compare Selector was visible before users accepted the Terms & Conditions during a fresh installation.

April 3, 2023

New Features & Improvements:

Fixed an issue where some fonts (primarily Asia-based fonts) were not loaded correctly.
Resolved an issue where long file names would expand the control instead of wrapping.
Kept the launcher open after a comparison is created for better workflow continuity.
Introduced spinners in buttons for actions that take time to complete.
License key is now visible in the settings window.
Added an option for users to switch between word-level or character-level comparison.
Telemetry improvements: grouped actions related to specific comparisons and created comparison IDs after file drop, keeping them consistent until the comparison is triggered.
Prepopulated the email body when emailing comparison outputs.
Shipped language-specific fonts with the desktop application for better compatibility.

Components:

Upgraded to new Viewer for better handling of long lists of changes and improved font handling for different languages.

​Release Notes

Release Notes