Text Comparison
Create a New/Open an Existing Comparison
Start by creating a new file comparison window or by opening an existing comparison.
To create a new comparison, use any of the following:
- the
toolbar button - the Cmd+Shift+F shortcut
- the File > File Comparison > New menu item
To open an existing file comparison, pick it from the comparison history:
- click the dropdown arrow to the right of the toolbar button and select the comparison from the list, or
- choose File > File Comparison and select the comparison from the list of earlier file comparisons, if any.
Open Local Resources for Comparison
Once you have a file comparison window, there are several ways to open a local file for comparison:
- drag and drop it onto a text editor
- type its full path into the path entry field:
- click
to bring up the Select File dialog - press Cmd+O
Open Remote Resources for Comparison
DeltaWalker Classic can access and compare remote files over any of the following protocols: FTP, SFTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, and WebDAVS. DeltaWalker Classic Pro and Oro can also open files stored in Dropbox and Google Drive. Remote locations are not available in DeltaWalker Classic Free.
A remote resource is identified by a unique string, known as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), constructed according to a well-defined URI syntax.
If access to a remote resource requires a user name and a password, they become part of the URI that identifies the resource. For your protection, enter them in the remote file dialog, not in the path entry field, which never displays a password. The remote file dialog is also where you supply other required information, such as the protocol, the server, the path on the server, and the port.
To open the remote file dialog, click the small dropdown arrow to the right of the folder icon inside the path entry field and choose Open Remote File…, or choose File > Open Remote… (Cmd+Shift+O):
And the remote file dialog itself:
If you dropped the files onto the editors, the comparison starts immediately;
in all other cases, start the comparison by clicking the
Compare toolbar button,
by pressing Cmd+R, or by pressing Return in the path entry field.
Understanding the Comparison Results
The result of the comparison varies widely depending on input and settings, but in a very general sense, it looks something like this:
This screenshot illustrates three types of differences: additions, deletions, and changes (a block of text that exists in both files but has been changed).
The following visual elements work together to communicate the text comparison results.
Colors
Wherever they are used—in the text editors, the folder trees, or the Bird’s-Eye View—four main colors consistently indicate the type of a difference. These are their default values and their meaning:
deletions
additions
changes
conflicts (three-way comparison only)
You can customize the comparison colors in Settings > Application > Appearance > Colors and Fonts, under Deltas.
In two-way comparison, differences are always defined in relation to the first content area; in three-way comparison, in relation to the common ancestor. For instance, an addition means that a block of text has been added to the second file, relative to the first.
Text Editors
The files participating in a text comparison are displayed in text editors. Inside these editors, blocks of text identified as differences are colored accordingly, and connecting lines run between related blocks.
For convenience, and to save screen space, DeltaWalker Classic by default uses a common scroll bar to keep the text editors synchronized and related blocks of text aligned as you scroll up and down. The alignment is relative to the vertical center of the connecting lines panel.
Bird’s-Eye View
The Bird’s-Eye View is a vertical color strip on the right-hand side of a comparison window, immediately next to the scroll bar.
Using small rectangles, known as markers, the Bird’s-Eye View renders a scaled-down map of all differences between the text files or folders being compared. Each marker shows the following information about its difference:
- type: deletion, addition, change, or conflict (three-way comparison only)
- size
- distribution
- selection (if any)
- the actual change, in the marker’s tooltip. In text comparison, this is the text of the lines involved, stacked one on top of the other, together with their line numbers; in folder comparison, it is the resources involved, together with the differencing information available for them.
For instance, the Bird’s-Eye View in the image above shows 2 changes, 1 deletion, 1 addition, and 1 conflict.
It also shows the location of these differences as well as the currently selected difference.
Clicking a Bird’s-Eye View marker scrolls the text editors to the location of the actual difference and selects it. With large files containing hundreds or thousands of differences, a single marker often represents more than one difference. Clicking such a marker scrolls the editors to the first of these differences and selects it.
Text Comparison Summary
A summary of the results of a text comparison is available in two places:
-
The Text Comparison Summary dialog (File > Comparison Summary…), showing the number of similar, deleted, added, and changed text blocks in the modified file relative to the reference. In three-way comparison, it also shows the number of conflicting differences.
-
The three comparison summary panels on the right-hand side of the status bar (four in three-way comparison), showing the number of deleted, added, and changed blocks of text in the modified file relative to its reference. The ’-’ and ’+’ icons in the first two panels, the consistent use of colors, and the tooltips identify the difference types.
Navigating Differences
You can navigate differences in DeltaWalker Classic in any of these ways:
- the Next Delta
and Previous Delta 
toolbar buttons - the Navigate > Next Delta and Navigate > Previous Delta menu items, or their shortcuts Cmd+Shift+Down and Cmd+Shift+Up
- Cmd+scroll wheel
- the small next and previous delta buttons at the bottom of the common scroll bar
Saving Your Changes
To save a modified local or remote file, use any of the following:
- the
button inside the path entry field - the Cmd+S shortcut; to save all modified files at once, use Cmd+Shift+S
- the File > Save menu item
Note that the HTTP and HTTPS protocols, in their standard form, only allow opening files, not saving them. Therefore, they are not offered when you save a file to a remote location. WebDAV, an HTTP(S)-based standard, is a notable exception in that it allows both opening and saving files.
The File > Save As… and File > Save As Remote… commands allow you to save a file in a location different from the one you opened it from. For instance, you can open a local file and save it on a remote server, and vice versa. In between, DeltaWalker Classic lets you visualize, compare, edit, and merge such files, hiding all location details from you.
Note that Office and PDF documents, as well as archive files, are opened as read-only.
If you try to close a file comparison window with modified editors, DeltaWalker Classic displays the Save Modified Files dialog and offers you the choice of saving the changes or not. Similarly, if you try to close the application window, DeltaWalker Classic offers you the choice of saving or discarding the changes in all modified editors.
When saving files using the Save File dialog, you can specify the character encoding and the line ending the file is saved with.