Toolbar and Contextual Menu Actions of the Compare Directories Tool
The toolbar of the Compare Directories tool contains operations that can be performed on the compared directory structure. Some of the toolbar actions are also available in the contextual menu.
Toolbar Actions
Perform Directories
Differencing- Looks for differences between the two directories displayed in the left and right side of the application window.
Perform Files
Differencing- Opens the Compare Files tool that allows you to compare the currently selected files.
Copy
Change from Right to Left- Copies the selected change from the right side to the left side (if there is no file/folder in the right side, the left file/folder is deleted).
Copy
Change from Left to Right- Copies the selected change from the left side to the right side (if there is no file/folder in the left side, the right file/folder is deleted).
Binary
Compare- Performs a byte-level comparison on the selected files.
Diff
Options- Opens the Directory Comparison preferences page where you can configure various options.
Show Only Modifications- Displays a more uncluttered file structure by hiding all identical files.
Save Results as HTML- Generates an HTML file that contains detailed information about the comparison result.
- File and folder filters
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Differences can be filtered using the following combo boxes: Include files, Include folders, Exclude files, and Exclude folders. They come with predefined values and are editable to allow custom values. All of them accept multiple comma-separated values and the * and ? wildcards. Each filter includes a drop-down menu with the latest 15 filters applied.
For example, to filter out all
JPEGandGIFimage files, edit the Exclude files filter box to read *.jpeg, *.png. To include only a specific sub-folder in the comparison (e.g. topics/very-recent), edit the Include folders filter to topi*/ve*rece*, or topi*\ve*rece*, choosing the appropriate file separator depending on your operating system.Tip:Instead of directly editing a filtering combo box, you can use Ctrl+Shift+E (Meta+Shift+E on macOS) keyboard shortcut when the focus is in the text field to display a specialized filter editor dialog box. You can edit any previously used filter (stored in the history) and create a new one. Furthermore, you can select multiple previous filters and simply combine them (as is) to create a new composite one, or you can edit the result of the multiple selection according to your needs. Also, previous filters can be removed from the history by selecting them and using Delete (Fn+Backspace on macOS) on your keyboard.
Contextual Menu Actions
Perform Files
Differencing- Opens the Compare Files tool that allows you to compare the currently selected files.
Binary Compare- Performs a byte-level comparison on the selected files.
Copy Change from Right to Left- Copies the selected difference from the file in the right panel to the file in the left panel.
Copy Change from Left to Right- Copies the selected difference from the file in the left panel to the file in the right panel.
- Open
- If the action is invoked on a file, the selected file is opened in Oxygen XML Editor. If the action is invoked on a directory, the selected directory is opened in the default file browser for your particular operating system.
- Open in System Application
- Opens the selected file in the system application that is associated with that type of file. The action is available when launching the Compare Directories tool from the Tools menu in Oxygen XML Editor.
- Show in Explorer
- Opens the default file browser for your particular operating system with the selected file highlighted.