Reviewing Revisions with Split View

A common review task: compare two versions of the same drawing side-by-side and mark up differences.

Setup

1. Open Revision A as your first tab.
2. Open Revision B as your second tab.
3. Activate View → Split → Left/Right on the currently visible tab (whichever you're looking at).

But wait — split view is within one document. For two documents, use a different approach:

Detached Window Workflow (Two Documents)

1. Open Revision A (tab 1).
2. Open Revision B (tab 2).
3. Right-click tab 2 → Detach (or drag it below the tab bar).
4. Position the two windows side-by-side.
5. Scroll each independently. Mark up whichever you need.

Single Document + Split View

If you only need to compare two regions / pages of the same document:

1. View → Split → Left/Right.
2. Each pane navigates independently.
3. Click into a pane to make it active; scroll to the page you want in that pane.

Comparison Tool (if available)

Tools → Compare Documents… (where enabled) opens a side-by-side comparison:

1. Pick the two PDFs to compare.
2. Spark aligns corresponding pages (by page number or visual matching).
3. Differences are highlighted automatically:
4. Added — green
5. Removed — red
6. Changed — yellow

Navigate with Previous / Next Difference buttons.

Overlay Comparison

For drawing revisions, overlay mode stacks the two drawings with different colors:

1. Tools → Compare → Overlay…
2. Pick the two PDFs.
3. Choose overlay opacity.
4. Pan and zoom through — differences stand out visually.

Marking Up Differences

Once you spot a change:

1. Use a Cloud annotation to ring the changed region (see 03.7).
2. Add a Sticky Note with details of the change.
3. Color by change type (e.g. blue for added, red for removed).
4. File → Save As the annotated version.

Sharing Comments Only

For reviewer-to-reviewer workflows, export only the comments without the whole PDF:

File → Comments → Export All Comments — produces an FDF file containing all annotations. Recipients import the FDF into their copy of the PDF:

File → Comments → Import… → pick the FDF.

This saves bandwidth when the PDF is large but comments are few.

Bookmarked Review List

For a structured review, enable the Comments side panel and use Filter → By Author or By Type to group reviews. Click Export as Report to get a summary PDF / CSV.

Version Control

Spark doesn't have built-in version control. For teams:

• Save named revisions: filename_rev-A.pdf, filename_rev-B.pdf.
• Use your company's document management system to track.
• Use File → Compare Documents whenever a new revision arrives.

Tips