Buzz
During computer usage, you often copy files or folders to different drives, resulting in a cluttered hard drive with duplicate files. Our previous article introduced you to software for finding and removing duplicate files called Duplicate Cleaner. This article will guide you on text comparison using WinMerge.
Guide to text comparison using WinMerge
Installing WinMerge
Get WinMerge
After downloading, during the installation process, when the Select Components window appears, make sure to select the Plugins option to install additional accompanying applications to enhance the tool's functionality.
Press Next to proceed with the installation.
When you reach the Select Additional Tasks window, check the following options:
- Enable Explorer context menu integration: Allows integration into the right-click menu of Explorer.
- Add WinMerge folder to your system path: Initializes a separate working folder for WinMerge on your computer.
- Create a desktop icon: Creates an icon on the Desktop.
Press Next to continue.
How to use WinMerge:
File Comparison:
Step 1: Open WinMerge, on the main interface, click on the File =>Open tab or the yellow folder icon on the toolbar.
Step 2: The Select Files or Folders window appears. In the Left (1) and Right (2) sections, click Browse... to open the two files for comparison. Then press OK (3) to check the differences between the two files.
Step 3: Compare text in this window, the differences between the two files are marked with highlighted text. By examining this, you will identify where the two files differ.
Folder Comparison:
Step 1: To compare folders, in the Select Files or Folders window, click Browse... in the Left (1) and Right (2) sections to select the two folders for comparison. If there are subfolders in these directories, check the Include Subfolders (3) option. Then press OK (4) to check the differences between the two folders.
Step 2: In this window, you will receive the comparison results of the selected folders. If in the Comparison result field, you see the note Binary files are identical, it means they are completely identical. If the note Binary files are different appears, it indicates a difference.
If you want to know which file is the latest and most complete, check the Left Date and Right Date fields, where an asterisk (*) symbol will be automatically added before the file date and time. Additionally, to find out the file format, check the Extension column.
Step 3: For Word or Media files, sometimes checking the Date field may not identify the latest updated file. In this case, you need to check the file size by recognizing it on the main interface of the software. Click on the Tools tab, choose Customize Columns...
The Display Columns window appears, check the Left Size and Right Size options, then press OK. Now, if you want to know which file is the latest update, besides looking for files with the asterisk (*) symbol, you can also search by file size.
Usually, when displaying results, files in subfolders also appear, making everything messy. To make the results look neater, go to View =>Tree Mode. Then, files in a subfolder will be collapsed under one heading. Clicking on the heading will reveal the content. This is how you compare text with WinMerge. Additionally, you can Download UltraCompare for text comparison. Best of luck with your endeavors.
