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WinDiff Menus

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File Menu

You can use the File menu to define selection, naming, and printing options.

Menu Command Description
CompareFiles Displays the FileOpen dialog box, in which you can enter the names of two files to compare.
CompareDirectories Displays the SelectDirectories dialog box, in which you can enter the names of two directories to compare.
Abort Terminates a file-scanning operation. This menu selection is unavailable until a scanning operation is initiated.
SaveFileList Displays the SaveFileList dialog box, in which you can specify the output file where the comparison results are to be written.
CopyFiles Displays the CopyFiles dialog box, in which you can specify files to be copied from one directory to another.
Print Prints the comparison results.
Exit Terminates WinDiff.

Edit Menu

You can use the Edit menu to designate the text editor you want to use and to specify which files to display for editing.

Menu Command Description
Edit Left File Displays the contents of the first (left) file using the default Notepad editor.
Edit Right File Displays the contents of the second (right) file using the default Notepad editor.
Edit Composite File Displays both files using the default Notepad editor.
Set Editor Displays a WinDiff dialog box, in which you can specify the editor to be used for the preceding operations. By default, Notepad is used.

View Menu

You can use the View menu to compare both the content and graphical representation of two files.

Menu Command Description
Outline Displays only the list of filenames (equivalent to the Outline button).
Expand Displays comparison of the contents of selected files (equivalent to the Expand button).
Picture Displays a graphical representation of the contents of the two files.
PreviousChange Goes directly to previous area of the file that was changed (if any).
NextChange Goes directly to next area of the file that was changed (if any).
RescanSelectedFile Recompares the selected file. This allows you to try again if WinDiff is unable to read a file for some reason.

Expand Menu

You can use the Expand menu to display changed lines in the selected file. You can also turn off the display of line numbers.

Menu Command Description
Left File Only Expands only the first (left) file, with changed lines colored appropriately.
Right File Only Expands only the second (right) file, with changed lines colored appropriately.
Both Files Expands both files, with changed lines colored appropriately.
Left Line Numbers Displays line numbers for the first (left) file.
Right Line Numbers Displays line numbers for the second (right) file.
No Line Numbers Turns off the line number display.

Options Menu

You can use the Options menu to specify file comparison criteria.

Menu Command Description
Ignore Blanks Ignores blank spaces in the expanded view, so that lines differing only in the amount of white space are shown as identical.
Mono Colours Displays differences in black and white only.
Show Identical Files In outline view, displays files that are identical.
Show Left-Only Files In outline view, displays files that appear only in the first (left) path.
Show Right-Only Files In outline view, displays files that appear only in the second (right) path.
Show Different Files In outline view, displays files that are in both paths, but are different.

Mark Menu

You can use the Mark menu to mark comparison results.

Menu Command Description
Mark File Marks selected comparison results.
Mark Pattern Displays the MarkFiles dialog box, in which you can specify the file marking pattern.
Hide Marked Files Hides all marked files.
Toggle Marked State Reverses the marked status of marked and unmarked files.

Help Menu

You can use the Help menu to display information about WinDiff.

Menu Command Description
Contents Displays the contents of the WinDiff help file.
About Displays copyright and version information about WinDiff.