Folder Comparisons
Launching a comparison
Use the File / New / New Folder Comparison
(Ctrl+M) command to open an empty Folder Comparison
view or File / New / New Comparison...
(Ctrl+Shift+L) menu item to select the sources directories to
use and/or the options to apply to the new document. The dialog box
allows you to open side-by-side or 3 way comparisons. You can
check the Merge option to start with the merge pane open.
Working with comparisons and merges
Each source folder is open and browsed in a usual tree
view.
The differences are presented by using different background
colours for the modified files. These are either added, removed
or changed. You can define the colours in the Options dialog
box.
- Navigating in the folder hierarchy
You can move in files and folders by using arrows
and scrollbars.
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The Next and Previous difference buttons allow you to
browse the differences |
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The Next and Previous conflict buttons point you
directly to the conflicts, already solved or not |
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The Next and Previous Unresolved conflict buttons
browse only unresolved conflicts |
Merge has a Generic Copy feature which allows many
simple operations in a few clicks (from both merge
and differentiation mode). This Copy feature
allows you Copy, Mirror and Update (and many more when
combining the options).
Merge follows a set of rules which are defined: first, for
the whole document and second, for the items that you select
and "resolve" by hand. Depending on the work that you want to
realize different options will interest you.
In order to help you to get your folders in the wanted state,
Merge combines several options:
- output folders: only the folders that
you specified as output folders get updated, you have no
risk of data loss for your important directories
- 'other' folder: you can specify an
alternate folder as output whatever the job that you are
accomplishing, so that you can make some 'experiments' with
no risks for your valuable data
- updates are "retained": you first
specify what you want to do with an item and later validate
the action, Merge will show in the "Result" and "Remaining
actions" columns what will be done so that you won't get
unexpected results
- cases classification: Merge classifies
the different situation with respect to differences,
absence and presence of the items so that you can act on
them in a discriminate way. For example, you can decide to
keep the most recent files for the files that cannot be
merged while let those that can be resolved by hand as
"unresolved" and treat them using the built-in file merge
view
- full undo/redo: you can undo/redo
resolve actions as long as their results were not written
to disk
- conflicting items are displayed in
bold: your attention is attracted to the
important files. The conflicts are colored as well, as long
as they are not resolved, when they get the default text
color
Conflicts are displayed only in merge mode. When comparing
two folders, all the differences are as well conflicts. When
comparing three folders, Ellié Computing Merge can deduce
in many situations what changed from the ancestor folder
configuration. When the software cannot decide what to do, it
defines a conflict so that your attracted to the given portion
of the tree view. The Resolving
conflicts section explain features to solve conflicts.
 Many useful options
are available through the right-click
menu.
See also
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