How to LaTeX diff your Overleaf project

latexdiff.md

How to LaTeX diff your Overleaf project

Set up local latex environment

• Install Texstudio https://www.texstudio.org/ and Miktex https://miktex.org/download
• Open Miktex > check for updates > updates tab > update now

Grab the two versions

• Download the original version
  • Go to Overleaf > history > find the version > view single version > download project at this version
• Download the current version
  • Go to Overleaf > menu (top left) > Download source
  • NB: if you've made changes using Overleaf's "track changes" feature, you'll need to accept those changes before they are reflected in your diff PDF
• Unzip both versions, rename the folders "orig" and "updated"

Compile to generate bibliographies

• Open orig/main.tex and updated/main.tex in Texstudio
• Compile each of them (green play button)
  • This may take a while on first run because it needs to download the packages you're using

Create the diff file

• Open a terminal in the folder containing the "orig" and "updated" folders
• Run "latexdiff-so orig/main.tex updated/main.tex --flatten > diff.tex"
  • We use latexdiff-so as it is standalone (doesn't rely on any other Perl libraries)
  • --flatten tells latexdiff to follow \input commands properly

Check and upload the output

• Open diff.tex in Texstudio, run "Build & View" (double green arrow) and inspect output
  • You might have to fix some errors here, for example removing tikz figures
• You can upload the diff.tex into your Overleaf project to share with collaborators and submit

There are also some ways to do it in Overleaf, but these weren't working for me: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/603303/install-and-use-latexdiff-without-miktex

is there a way to compile diff in a different colour to show the changes?

Not sure sorry!

…

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Make sure not to use powershell, use cmd instead. Because powershell uses utf-16 encoding which makes the generated diff.tex unable to compile correctly with tons of errors.

Also, you can upload the diff.tex directly to the updated project folder on overleaf and use overleaf to compile to diff.text to make your life a lot easier.