Comparing Folders

Comparing folders involves:

To show the folder comparison window

Menu File > Compare Folders
Toolbar button Compare New Files image
Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+Shift+D

To select the folders to compare

Folder Selector:

Folder selector

  • Type file path; auto-suggest and auto-complete available
  • Click button to bring up Select File dialog
  • Select from history (dropdown list)
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.

To start a folder comparison

Menu File > Compare
Toolbar button Compare New Files image
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:

Progress Meter image

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):

To navigate the differences

Navigating folder comparison differences is identical to navigating file comparison differences:

Menu File > Navigate > Next/Previous Difference
Toolbar button Next Difference image / Previous Difference image
Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow / Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow
Mouse Ctrl+Mouse Wheel
Other The mini difference navigation buttons Next Difference Small image / Previous Difference Small image at the bottom of the common scrollbar

The results are presented in a way consistent with the file and xml comparison so understanding the folder comparison is equally straightforward.

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