# Foxit PDF Editor: Catch Every Change in a Revised Contract

> A vendor sends version 2 with "small cleanups". Compare both PDFs in Foxit PDF Editor and see every changed fee, date and clause. Free hands-on lesson.

Source: https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/compare-two-versions-of-a-contract-with-foxit-pdf-editor · Updated 2026-10-18 · Free from Stepthrough (https://learn.ynteractive.com)

## Practice it step by step

[Start the free practice](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/foxit-compare-contract-versions)

[Take the free module: why it matters, practice and a quick check →](https://learn.ynteractive.com/courses/ai-apps-worth-knowing/4)

You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Foxit. It checks your work as you go, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on. Free, about 8 minutes, and nothing touches your real accounts. [Open full screen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/foxit-compare-contract-versions)

Free · Live now · [AI Automation for Operations](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/industry/operations) · [Foxit](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tool/foxit) · ~8 min · 22 steps · Beginner

Updated October 18, 2026. Built against the tool’s current screens and checked step by step. [How we check this lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/about#how-we-check)

A vendor sends version 2 of a contract with a friendly note: just a few small cleanups, please sign by Friday. Reading two versions side by side takes the better part of an hour, and the change you miss is usually a number. In this free lesson I open the version you agreed to in [Foxit](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tool/foxit) PDF Editor, run Compare against the new one, and walk through every change Foxit marks: a higher fee, shorter [payment terms](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/payment-terms), a longer notice to cancel, a bigger renewal increase, a brand new clause and a smaller [liability cap](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/limitation-of-liability-clause). You finish with a short list to send back before anyone signs.

## At a glance

| Question | Answer |
| --- | --- |
| What you build | A vendor sends "version 2, just small cleanups". Compare both PDFs in Foxit PDF Editor, see every changed fee, date and clause, and reply with a list. |
| Tools | Foxit |
| Time | About 8 minutes, 22 steps in 6 parts |
| Level | Beginner, no coding needed |
| Cost | Free |
| Ways to learn it | [Practice it step by step](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/foxit-compare-contract-versions) |

### The 6 parts, in short

1. What a quiet revision costs: Read the vendor email, Put a price on it, Open Foxit PDF Editor.
2. Open both versions: Open the old version, Go to the View tab, Click Compare, Choose the new version.
3. Read the summary: Run the comparison, Read the change count.
4. Walk through each change: Jump to the first change, Check the money, Check the renewal terms, Keep going, and 3 more steps.
5. Keep the list: Open the change list, Open a page of changes, Read old and new text, Download the result.
6. Reply with confidence: What this saves you, Reply to the vendor.

**Start here first:** [AI Contract Review in 10 Minutes using Foxit AI](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/review-a-client-contract-in-10-minutes-with-foxit-ai) (module 1 of AI Automation for Operations)

**Part of:** [AI for Law Firms](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/paths/ai-for-law-firms) (step 8 of 13)

**Part of:** [AI for Insurance Agencies](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/paths/ai-for-insurance-agencies) (step 15 of 15)

**Part of:** [AI for Operations Teams](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/paths/ai-for-operations) (step 11 of 28). Next up: [Foxit PDF Editor: Fill and Sign a Form without Printing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/fill-and-sign-a-pdf-form-without-printing-with-foxit)

**Part of:** [AI for Finance Teams](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/paths/ai-for-finance) (step 8 of 17). Next up: [Foxit PDF Editor: Fill and Sign a Form without Printing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/fill-and-sign-a-pdf-form-without-printing-with-foxit)

**Part of:** [AI Apps Worth Knowing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/paths/partner-tools-ai-apps) (step 3 of 42). Next up: [Foxit PDF Editor: Fill and Sign a Form without Printing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/fill-and-sign-a-pdf-form-without-printing-with-foxit)

## The business case: what "small cleanups" can cost

Picture the operations manager at a 20-person marketing agency. The software vendor you agreed terms with on a call sends version 2 of the subscription agreement and says the changes are just cleanups from their legal team. You have a pile of other work, so the honest answer is that most people skim it, see the same headings and sign.

In the sample for this lesson, "cleanups" means the monthly fee went from $1,200 to $1,350. That one number is $1,800 a year. The other changes decide what next year costs: you now need 90 days' notice to cancel instead of 30, and the price can go up 9% at renewal instead of 5%.

What changes with Compare: Foxit lines up both PDFs, marks every replaced, inserted and deleted word, and starts with a summary page that counts them. You stop hunting and start reading only what changed. In my run, the comparison itself took seconds and the whole review took a couple of minutes.

## The example: Bright Path Marketing's software agreement

Bright Path Marketing and Summit Cloud Services are made up. Version 1 is what was agreed on the call: 25 users at $1,200 a month, [invoices](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/invoice) due in 30 days, 30 days' notice to cancel, a renewal increase of up to 5% and a liability cap of 12 months of fees. Version 2 quietly changes all of those, and adds one new sentence that lets the vendor change features on 10 days' notice.

Download both samples and follow along in your own Foxit account: [Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v1.pdf](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/files/foxit-compare-contract-versions/Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v1.pdf) and [Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v2.pdf](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/files/foxit-compare-contract-versions/Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v2.pdf). They are plain PDFs with made-up companies, so they are safe to upload anywhere.

## Who this lesson is for

Office managers, operations coordinators, account managers, bookkeepers and anyone else who gets sent a "revised" contract, policy, statement of work or price sheet and has to sign it. You do not need a legal background. The lesson is a practice copy built from real Foxit screens, so you do not need a Foxit account to practise. If you want a plain-English read of a whole contract first, start with [AI contract review in 10 minutes using Foxit AI](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/review-a-client-contract-in-10-minutes-with-foxit-ai).

## What Foxit found, and how we checked it

In the real run (Foxit PDF Editor Cloud, 18 October 2026) the summary showed 10 changes: 9 replacements and 1 insertion. Every one matches a planted change in the samples: the version note at the top, 25 to 20 users, $1,200.00 to $1,350.00, thirty to fifteen days to pay, thirty to ninety days' notice, five to nine percent, twelve to three months for the cap, and the inserted sentence about changing features. Some changes get two marks, for example "five" and "(5%" are marked separately.

Replaced text has a yellow wavy underline, inserted text a blue underline with a blue triangle on the old side, and deleted text a red strike, as Foxit's Legend box shows. The Comments panel lists each mark as Replaced Text with the [Old Text] and [New Text].

## Why compare instead of re-reading

When you re-read a revised document, you read for what you expect: the headings look the same, the sentences sound the same, and your eye slides past "fifteen (15)" where it used to say "thirty (30)". Compare does not expect anything. It reports every difference, including the ones nobody mentioned.

It only works if you keep the right old version. Save the version you agreed to, signed or not, in the same folder as the contract. When version 2 arrives, that is the file you compare against, not the vendor's previous draft.

## What this saves you

A side-by-side read of a two-page agreement takes about 40 minutes if you do it properly (an example estimate, not a measurement). Compare takes seconds, and reading only the marked changes takes a couple of minutes. More important than the time, nothing gets skipped: Next Change stops on every mark, in order.

Next business case: once the terms are settled, read the whole contract for auto-renewals and late fees with [Foxit AI](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/review-a-client-contract-in-10-minutes-with-foxit-ai), and when a client sends you a form to sign, [fill and sign it in Foxit without printing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/fill-and-sign-a-pdf-form-without-printing-with-foxit).

## Gotchas worth knowing

- Compare shows what changed, not whether the change is fair. For anything large, long or unusual, ask a lawyer, and use the change list to ask better questions.
- Text-based PDFs compare cleanly. A scanned PDF is a picture of text, so compare results can be poor; ask the sender for the original file.
- Formatting changes can add noise. Foxit's summary counts styling and annotation changes separately from content, so check the Content column first.
- On my account, which shows a Start Free Trial button, Compare worked. Combine Files and marking redactions asked for the PDF Editor+ trial instead. What your account can do depends on your plan.
- Foxit keeps The result of Comparison.pdf in your Foxit files. Only upload contracts your company allows you to put in a cloud tool.

## What you need

- Foxit PDF Editor. Foxit's pricing page lists Compare in both PDF Editor ($129.99 per user per year) and PDF Editor+ ($159.99 per user per year), on Windows, macOS and the web, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no credit card (foxit.com, October 2026).
- Both versions as PDFs: the one you agreed to and the new one. The two samples on this page work.
- A lawyer for anything large or unusual.

## Links

- [Foxit PDF Editor](https://partnerstack.foxit.com/2nvkbfd1bfcu) (affiliate link): the PDF editor this lesson uses. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Disclosure: links marked "affiliate link" are partner links. If you sign up through one, Stepthrough may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The lesson is free either way and does not depend on it.

## Try it yourself, free

Reading the steps is a start. Doing them is how it sticks. The interactive module walks you through every click in a practice copy of Foxit, checks each step, and never touches your real accounts.

[Start “Foxit PDF Editor: Catch Every Change in a Revised Contract”](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/foxit-compare-contract-versions)

## Step by step: Foxit PDF Editor: Catch Every Change in a Revised Contract

All 22 steps of the interactive module, in order. In the module you watch each one, then do it yourself in a practice copy that checks your work.

### 1. What a quiet revision costs

1. **Read the vendor email.** You're Dana Reyes, operations manager at Bright Path Marketing. The software vendor sent **version 2** of the subscription agreement with a note: *"Just a few small cleanups, please sign by Friday."* Click the **email**.
   The vendor says version two only has small cleanups. That is exactly when changes slip through.
2. **Put a price on it.** Reading both versions side by side by hand takes about 40 minutes, and it is easy to miss one number. In this sample, one missed number is a fee that went from $1,200 to $1,350 a month: **$1,800 a year**. Click the **total**.
   One missed number in this sample costs eighteen hundred dollars a year.
3. **Open Foxit PDF Editor.** Foxit PDF Editor has a **Compare** tool that lines up two PDFs and marks every change. The next screens are real Foxit PDF Editor Cloud screenshots from my account, captured October 2026. Click the **Foxit** card.
   Foxit PDF Editor can line up both versions and mark every change for you. Let us open it.

### 2. Open both versions

4. **Open the old version.** This is Foxit PDF Editor Cloud in the browser, at pdfonline.foxit.com. Click **Open File** and pick **Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v1.pdf**, the version you agreed to on the call. It is a sample you can download from this lesson's page.
5. **Go to the View tab.** Version 1 is open. Compare lives on the **View** tab in the ribbon. Click **View**.
   Compare lives on the View tab.
6. **Click Compare.** Click **Compare**.
7. **Choose the new version.** **Compare PDF Files** opens with the open file already set as the **Old File** on the left. Under **New File**, click **Choose** and pick **Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v2.pdf**, the version the vendor just sent.
   The open file is already the old file. Under New File, click Choose and pick version two.

### 3. Read the summary

8. **Run the comparison.** Both files show a preview, and the page range is set to all pages, **1 to 2**, for each. Click **OK**.
   Both files are in, and all pages are set.
9. **Read the change count.** Foxit makes a new PDF called **The result of Comparison.pdf**. Page 1 is a **Summary**: **10 total changes**, **9 replacements**, **1 insertion** and **0 deletions**. So much for "small cleanups". Click the **counts**.
   Foxit found ten changes: nine replacements and one insertion. So much for small cleanups.

### 4. Walk through each change

10. **Jump to the first change.** On the **Compare Results** tab, click **Next Change**. Old version on the left, new on the right, each change underlined.
    The old version is on the left and the new one is on the right.
11. **Check the money.** Look at **2. Fees and Payment** on the right. The fee went from **$1,200.00** to **$1,350.00** a month, and invoices are now due in **fifteen (15)** days, not thirty. Click **section 2** on the right.
    The monthly fee went up a hundred and fifty dollars, and you now have half the time to pay.
12. **Check the renewal terms.** In **3. Term and Renewal**, the notice to cancel went from **thirty (30)** to **ninety (90)** days, and the price increase allowed at renewal went from **five percent (5%)** to **nine percent (9%)**. Section 1 also dropped your users from 25 to 20. Click **section 3** on the right.
    You now have to cancel ninety days ahead, and the renewal increase almost doubled.
13. **Keep going.** Click **Next Change** until you reach page 2. It moves one change at a time, so you never skip one.
    Keep clicking Next Change. It stops on every change, so nothing gets skipped.
14. **Spot the new clause.** In **5. Service Levels**, a whole sentence is new, underlined in blue on the right only: *the Vendor may change, add or remove features of the Service at any time* with ten days notice. A blue triangle on the left marks where it was inserted. Click the **new sentence**.
    Here is a whole new sentence. The vendor can now change features with ten days notice.
15. **Next change.** Click **Next Change** once more.
16. **Check the liability cap.** In **6. Limitation of Liability**, the cap went from fees paid in the last **twelve (12)** months to the last **three (3)** months. If something goes wrong, the vendor now owes you a quarter as much. Click **section 6** on the right.
    And the liability cap dropped from twelve months of fees to three.

### 5. Keep the list

17. **Open the change list.** Every change is also saved as a comment. On the left edge, click the **Comments** icon.
    Every change is also saved as a comment.
18. **Open a page of changes.** The panel counts the marks by page (each change is marked on both sides). Click **Page 3**.
    The changes are grouped by page.
19. **Read old and new text.** Each card says **Replaced Text** with the **[Old Text]** and **[New Text]**, such as "five" to "nine" and "thirty (30" to "ninety (90". That is your list for the reply. Click the **list**.
    Each card shows the old text and the new text. That is your list for the reply.
20. **Download the result.** Foxit keeps **The result of Comparison.pdf** in your Foxit files. To save a copy, click **Download File** in the top bar.

### 6. Reply with confidence

21. **What this saves you.** Click **What this saves you**.
    Here is what you saved, and what to do next.
22. **Reply to the vendor.** Send the vendor your list of seven changes and ask which ones they meant. Click the **reply**.
    Reply with the list and ask the vendor to explain each change before anyone signs.

## Frequently asked questions

**How does the interactive lesson work?**

Each step is shown to you first on the left (Watch). Then you do it yourself in a practice copy on the right (Your turn), and every click is checked. If you get stuck, press Do it for me. It is a practice copy, so no real accounts are touched.

**Is this lesson free?**

Yes. Stepthrough is free. Foxit PDF Editor is a paid product with a 14-day free trial and no credit card needed to start, according to foxit.com.

**How do I compare two PDFs in Foxit PDF Editor?**

Open the older version, go to the View tab and click Compare. The open file is set as the Old File. Under New File, click Choose, pick the newer version and click OK. Foxit makes a result PDF that starts with a summary of the changes, then shows both versions side by side with each change marked.

**What do the colors mean in Foxit's comparison?**

In the run for this lesson, replaced text had a yellow wavy underline, inserted text a blue underline, and deleted text is shown with a red strike, as Foxit's Legend box explains.

**Can I get a list of every change?**

Yes. Open the Comments panel on the comparison result. Each change is a comment card with the old and new text, grouped by page, which you can copy into your reply.

[Start this module free](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/foxit-compare-contract-versions)

- Previous in AI Automation for Operations: [AI Contract Review in 10 Minutes using Foxit AI](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/review-a-client-contract-in-10-minutes-with-foxit-ai)
- Next in AI Automation for Operations: [Foxit PDF Editor: Fill and Sign a Form without Printing](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/fill-and-sign-a-pdf-form-without-printing-with-foxit)

## Terms in this lesson

Plain-English definitions, each with an example from a free lesson.

[Payment terms](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/payment-terms) · [Limitation of liability clause](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/limitation-of-liability-clause) · [Invoice](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/invoice) · [Statement of work](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/statement-of-work) · [Late fee](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/late-fee)

[The full AI glossary](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary)

## Browse related tutorials

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