WordGit

A tool that allows you to diff and merge Word (.docx) files with git. Currently Mac only.

Setup

1. Clone this repository somewhere.
2. Add the following to ~/.gitconfig:

[difftool "Word"]
  cmd = <PATH TO WORDGIT>/diff.js \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"
[mergetool "Word"]
  cmd = <PATH TO WORDGIT>/merge.js \"$BASE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$MERGED\"

Usage

Diff

1. In your repository, run git difftool -T Word with any arguments that you would normally pass to git diff.
2. On your first run, Word may prompt you to open some files so that Word can access them through its sandbox. Do as it says. (If you don't see the diff after doing this step, rerun the command in step 1 and it should work)
3. Your diff should open in a new document.

Merge

1. In your repository run git merge, then, if there are conflicts, git mergetool -T Word <path to docx file with conflicts>.
2. On your first run, Word may prompt you to open some files so that Word can access them through its sandbox. Do as it says.
3. A new Word doc should open with the changes on both branches added as tracked changes. Merge any differences.
4. Click the Done button. (On your first run, you may get another sandbox prompt.)
5. Merge any other files and commit your merge as normal.

FAQ

Will it run on Windows?

No, this is implemented using Apple's scripting support. However, you may be able to use TortoiseGit's Windows implementation of the same feature.

How it works

This whole thing is a careful dance around a bunch of Word bugs, but it seems to work pretty well.

Diff

git difftool runs diff.js as a shebang script, evaluated by osascript (AppleScript). diff.js copies the diffed files to /tmp/word_git (we copy them because Git gives us paths that Word's sandboxing workaround doesn't seem to like). Then we open and close doc2 (Word's sandboxing workaround doesn't seem to trigger when you open a document for diffing, but opening and closing it first sloves that). Finally, we open doc1, run the diff, and close doc1.

Merge

Similar to diff. There's some closing and reopening because for some reason Word doesn't merge properly if we don't.