Comparison History
Overview
Every time you successfully complete a comparison, DeltaWalker Classic automatically records it in its comparison history, so that later you can run it the same way you did the last time.
That kind of history is well familiar to you—browsers of any grade offer it. Just as browsers do, DeltaWalker Classic lets you manage its comparison history too—you can delete, rename, or edit any of the settings governing that comparison.
A comparison history entry holds all the bits defining that comparison—the pathnames/URIs of the compared resources, the filters, if any, as well as all other settings exposed via the comparison-specific pages of the Settings window.
The comparison history is tightly connected to two sets of settings—the comparison settings and the settings for new comparisons.
As far as comparison history is concerned, there are two types of settings in DeltaWalker Classic:
- Comparison settings are the settings defining a specific comparison. Modifying the settings of a comparison has no effect on the settings of other comparisons, nor on the settings for new comparisons. The easiest way to access a comparison’s settings is to open/activate that comparison, then click the Settings button on the main toolbar; they are on the tab named after the comparison.
- Settings for new comparisons are the settings used when you create a new comparison. When you create a new comparison window, it gets a snapshot of the settings for new comparisons and makes it its own. They are on the New Comparisons tab of the Settings window, which the toolbar Settings button opens when no comparison is active.
Let’s look at an example:
You launch DeltaWalker Classic, then create a new file comparison and drag & drop a pair of files for comparison. By default, DeltaWalker Classic recognizes and displays differences in character case: however, you realize that you are not interested in them. You tell DeltaWalker Classic to ignore them by clicking the main toolbar Settings button and selecting Ignore differences in character case on the All Comparisons page of the tab named after the comparison. If the files you are comparing have character case differences, you would immediately see the effect of the change. You just modified the settings of the file comparison you are currently working on. DeltaWalker Classic automatically saves the change so that next time you open and run this comparison, the new setting value will be in effect.
On the other hand, the change had no effect on the settings for new comparisons, which means that next time you create a new file comparison, it would have “Ignore differences in character case” unselected. If you like all new text comparisons to ignore differences in character case you go to Settings > New Comparisons > All Comparisons, and select the “Ignore differences in character case” option. Such change will not affect existing text comparisons.
Export/Import
The File > History > Export… allows you to export the DeltaWalker Classic comparison history, together with all the application-level settings and the settings for new comparisons. You can later import that history in a different DeltaWalker Classic installation on the same or on a different machine using the File > History > Import... menu item.
Opening a Comparison From History
You can open a comparison history item from the comparison history window accessible via the little down-pointing arrows next to the File Comparison 
and the Folder Comparison 
toolbar buttons.
The comparison history window groups its entries by their creation date:
