Document merge

A document processing system comprising:

• a system memory;
• a processing unit that executes instructions stored on the system memory to create a document processing application configured to merge together at least two documents to generate a third document;
• a first document configured to be processed by the document processing application, the first document storing content and metadata, the content of the first document including at least one data unit, the metadata of the first document including a unit identifier and an edit identifier associated with each data unit, the unit identifier of each data unit being generated when the data unit is created, the edit identifier of each data unit being generated when a modification to the data unit is saved;
• a second document configured to be processed by the document processing application, the second document including at least one data unit,
• wherein the document processing application is configured to:
• compare the unit identifiers of the first document to unit identifiers of the second document to determine whether each of the unit identifiers is a matching unit identifier or a non-matching unit identifier, wherein each of the matching unit identifiers indicates corresponding data units of the first and second documents, and wherein each of the non-matching unit identifiers indicates a data unit of one of the first and second documents that does not correspond with any data unit of the other of the first and second documents;
• compare edit identifiers of the data units associated with the matching unit identifiers to ascertain matching edit identifiers, each of the matching edit identifiers indicating the data unit of one of the first and second documents matches the corresponding data unit of the other of the first and second documents;
• insert directly into the third document data units of the first and second document that are associated with non-matching unit identifiers;
• insert directly into the third document data units of the first and second documents that are associated with matching unit identifiers and matching edit identifiers;
• and
• merge into the third document data units of the first and second documents that are associated with matching unit identifiers and non-matching edit identifiers.

A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of generating a merged document from a first document and a second document, the method comprising:

• determining whether the first document has a first document identifier, the first document identifier identifying the first document;
• obtaining the first document identifier if the first document has a first document identifier;
• determining whether the second document has a second document identifier, the second document identifier identifying the second document;
• obtaining the second document identifier if the second document has a second document identifier;
• comparing the first document identifier of the first document with the second document identifier of the second document;
• performing a conventional merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if any of the first and second documents does not have a document identifier;
• performing a conventional merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if the first document identifier of the first document differs from the second document identifier of the second document;
• and
• performing an accelerated merge of the first and second documents to generate the merged document if the first document identifier of the first document matches the second document identifier of the second document.