00:00:09In this demonstration, I will show you the
visual Author mode in the File comparison tool.
00:00:14This mode displays the files you are comparing
in a visual mode similar to the Author editing
00:00:20mode in Oxygen XML Editor or Author.
00:00:25Note that the file comparison tool is usually integrated with a version control application,
00:00:30but for simplicity
sake, this video will just use local files.
00:00:36Suppose I've created an xml document about Growing Flowers and I send it to a colleague for review.
00:00:44In the meantime, while my colleague is in
the process of reviewing it, I make more changes to file,
00:00:51and eventually, my colleague sends the file back with some changes.
00:00:56So, I need a way to compare and merge my colleague's
changes with my changes, but also in comparison
00:01:03to the original file.
00:01:05To do this, I can use the 3-way comparison
mode in the Files Comparison tool
00:01:10that can be selected from Oxygen's Tools menu.
00:01:13I can activate the 3-way comparison mode with
this toolbar button...
00:01:18For the base file, I'll select my original
file...
00:01:24and in the left panel, I'll select my local
file that contains my changes
00:01:30and in the right panel, I'll select the file
that contains my colleague's changes.
00:01:36Now I'll switch to the Author mode to see
the differences in a visual mode.
00:01:41Notice that the visual mode is similar to
the Author editing mode in Oxygen
00:01:45and you can easily spot the differences in
the two panels with colored highlights and
00:01:51adjacent changes are grouped into blocks of
changes.
00:01:55The vertical stripe on the far right side
also helps you to quickly identify the locations
00:02:00of the differences.
00:02:01You can also navigate through the differences
using the arrow buttons on the toolbar.
00:02:07It also includes a Tag Display Mode drop-down
menu that allows you to change the way the
00:02:13tags are displayed (just like you can in Oxygen's
Author mode).
00:02:19This is helpful for seeing changes in the
XML markup (for example, if an element or
00:02:24attribute is changed by one or the other person)
00:02:28The colors help you to determine the type of change.
00:02:32Changes highlighted in Blue indicate incoming
changes ...
00:02:37so these are my colleague's changes.
00:02:40Changes highlighted in gray indicate local
changes ...
00:02:44so these are my changes that I made after
sending the file to my colleague.
00:02:49and changes highlighted in light red indicate a conflict ... these are blocks that contain
00:02:56changes made by both of us.
00:02:59Also, a lighter shade indicates the block
that contains the changes,
00:03:04while a darker shade indicates specific changes
within the blocks.
00:03:09If I click on a precise block, widgets appear
that offer some options for copying or appending
00:03:16changes from one side to the other
00:03:19I've resolved one of the conflicts, but in
the other case, I think my change is better,
00:03:25so I'll leave it as is.
00:03:27Since the rest of the changes don't contain
conflicts, I can use the "Copy all non-conflicting
00:03:33changes from right to left" button on the
toolbar.
00:03:37Now all that's left are my changes and I've
successfully merged the changes made by my colleague.
00:03:45Notice that the save icon is now enabled,
meaning that I need to save the changes locally.
00:03:51Note that this visual Author mode can be used by both Two-way and Three-way comparisons.
00:03:57The visual Author mode is not only available
in the File Comparison tool, but also:
00:04:02- in the Compare Directories Against a Base
tool
00:04:05- in the built-in merge tool that's available
for Oxygen Content Fusion
00:04:10- and it's even available if you integrate
the File Comparison tool in an external tool
00:04:15(such as SourceTree)
00:04:18This concludes the demonstration.
00:04:20Thanks for watching!