Comparing folders involves:
Menu | File > Compare Folders |
Toolbar button |
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Keyboard Shortcut | Ctrl+Shift+D |
Folder Selector:
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Keyboard Shortcut | Ctrl+O (when folder comparison window has the input focus) |
Drag and Drop | Drag a file from the file-system browser and drop it onto one of the path entry/browse widgets or onto one of the tree areas. |
Folder comparison, particularly of thousands and tens of thousands of files, is not instantaneous the way file comparison is. Therefore DeltaWalker leaves it to you to initiate the actual comparison when you are satisfied with your choice of folders.
Menu | File > Compare |
Toolbar button |
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Keyboard Shortcut | F5 |
Folder comparison is a two-phase process. Fist, each file and folder in the selected folder hierarchies are scanned so that DeltaWalker can accurately determine the amount of work in front of it. Once the scanning is complete, the actual comparison begins. During both phases, DeltaWalker displays a progress indicator on the status bar whose purpose is two-fold:
The progress indicator looks similar to this:
A click on the stop button will stop the folder comparison and keep the comparison results collected until that moment.
As a result you'd get a window that looks something like this (content of editors can vary greatly):
Navigating folder comparison differences is identical to navigating file comparison differences:
Menu | File > Navigate > Next/Previous Difference |
Toolbar button |
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Keyboard Shortcut | Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow / Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow |
Mouse | Ctrl+Mouse Wheel |
Other |
The mini difference navigation buttons
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The results are presented in a way consistent with the file and xml comparison so understanding the folder comparison is equally straightforward.