Merge Changes from Multiple Word Files into One Document

Collaborations get you access to lots of data.  However, collaborations lead to long author lists; long author lists lead to many comments from co-authors; and many comments from co-authors can lead to great headaches trying to track changes and get a final clean manuscript together.  Well, fortunately Microsoft Word has a built in feature that enables users to merge changes together from many different contributors into one master document (.doc or .docx file).  This is done iteratively, two at a time, until all the comments from reviewers are in one merged MS Word document.  To do this follow these steps:

1) Open a blank document in Microsoft Word
2) Go to the Review tab and click the Compare icon and then select Combine....
3) In the dialogue box that pops up, input your original file name in the Original document field and one of the changed document file names into the Revised document field.
4) Click on the more button and ensure the the radio button next to Original document is selected under the Show changes in... heading.
5) Click OK and a document will be generated that merges changes from your original and revised document.
6) Repeat steps 2-5, over again for each revised document you want to combine with the merged document.

It is a bit repetitive, but eventually all the changes from each file will be combined and tracked into one master document.  Ideally, the developers at Microsoft will improve the functionality of this so that many changes from many documents can be merged into one document in a single step.  A final note is that Word can only store one set of formatting changes at a time, so if formatting does change from draft to draft a dialogue box will appear asking you which formatting you want to use.  Hope this saves you a lot of time and frustration.

Genetic Simulation Resources

I just came across a useful repository of genetic simulation resources I thought would make a good addition to Genome Toolbox.  The site, aptly called Genetic Simulation Resources (GSR), provides a detailed listing of over 80 useful software applications available for genetic simulations.  The NCI sponsored catalog aids in scanning through available simulation programs, comparing similar applications, and quickly identifying the most appropriate software application for a particular study.  In addition to providing a description and external link, literature citations are also listed for many of the simulation packages.  If you are the developer of a genetic simulation resource that is not listed in the GSR repository, you can submit a request to add it.  Overall, a great resource for simulating data for genetic studies that may help you avoid reinventing the wheel by programming a de novo simulation routine.  A good first place to check.

Find SNP Overlap from Different SNP Arrays

If you have .bed files for array manifests it is relatively easy to use UNIX to compare the overlap between SNP positions in the two files.  Here is a quick one line of code to do so:


This essentially finds all rows that are the same in the two files.  It requires all unique rows in each file and will only work for one base pair long items.