WinMerge is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

(Prior to WinMerge v2.WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. If your FTP program mangles your files by changing line-endings, you'll want to tell WinMerge to ignore carriage return differences.Ĭhoose Tools | Filters | Linefilters tab and check the 'Ignore lines.' box, and enter this: Preventing it from flagging line-endings as changes

Edit as described above for individual file diff's. To look at diff's in displayed files, double-click or press Enter on a highlighted entry. You can optionally enable/disable left/right comparison results too. Under the 'View' menu, deselect 'Identical Files'.

You'll see a list of files after comparison. BE SURE TO CHECK THE 'Recursive' CHECKBOX so that it knows to compare files in subdirectories too. To compare entire folders, do the same as for files above, but only enter folder names (or drag-and-drop). Probably best to *not* choose 'Show Identical Items' because if the files are identical, you don't need to review them. When comparing, if you see only left-side or right-side files, click on the 'View' menu and choose 'Show Different Items'. If you've made any changes, you'll be prompted to save them, for both files (if relevant). There are arrow buttons in the navigation bar to allow you to move down and up thru known differences, and left/right to copy text from one to the other.ĮSC exits. The 2nd file you drag onto WinMerge needs to be dragged onto the 2nd filename box.Ĭlick OK, and the files' contents will be compared, with differences highlighted. Or, drag-and-drop files from an explorer window onto the WinMerge window. To compare files press CTRL-O (File | Open) and choose the desired individual files to compare. You can install WinMerge by downloading the latest version from their website at:

Win merge for mac