Folder Comparison

You open a folder comparison window and select the folders to compare much as you start a file comparison.

The difference is in the menu item, toolbar button and shortcut: use the toolbar button, File > Folder Comparison > New, or Cmd+Shift+D. Then select a folder for each side and click Compare (File > Compare, Cmd+R).

Understanding the Comparison Results

The results vary with the folders you compare and your settings, but in general a folder comparison looks like this:

Two-way folder comparison

The screenshot shows the three kinds of deltas: additions, deletions, and changes (a file or folder that exists on both sides but differs).

The following visual elements work together to communicate the comparison results.

Colors

The delta colors are the same as elsewhere: for deletions, for additions, for changes, and for conflicts (three-way comparison only).

In three-way comparison, as in two-way comparison, changes are defined relative to the Reference.

Bird’s-Eye View

The Bird’s-Eye View is a vertical color strip on the right-hand side of a comparison window, next to the scrollbar. As in text comparison, it gives you an overview of all deltas at a glance.

Folder comparison Bird's-Eye View

Using small rectangles, called markers, the Bird’s-Eye View renders a scaled-down map of all deltas between the files or folders being compared. Each marker shows the following about its delta:

type: deletion, addition, change, or conflict (three-way comparison only)
size
position
selection, if any
the actual change, in its tooltip. In text comparison, these are the lines involved, with their line numbers; in folder comparison, these are the files and folders involved, with the delta information available for them.

For instance, the Bird’s-Eye View in the image above shows 2 changes, 1 deletion, 1 addition, and 1 conflict, where they are, and which delta is selected.

Clicking a marker scrolls the comparison to its delta and selects it. In large comparisons with hundreds or thousands of deltas, one marker often represents more than one delta; clicking it scrolls to the first of them and selects it.

Comparing Selected Files

DeltaWalker Classic combines folder and file comparison so that you see both the big picture and the detail. You analyze the folder comparison results and open file comparisons for the files of interest, typically files that exist on both sides but differ, without leaving the folder comparison.

Selecting files for comparison

You can select one or more pairs or triplets of files in several ways:

Click a file to select a single pair or triplet of files.
Hold down Cmd while you click the files of interest.
Use the Select menu, in the folder comparison’s context menu or on its local toolbar, to select all files of a given kind: Added, Deleted, Changed, or Changed, Added, and Deleted. Invert Selection deselects the selected files and selects all others.
Click a file and drag across the other files you want to select.

Comparing selected files

Once you have selected the files you want to compare, right-click one of them and choose Open Selected for Comparison. You can also double-click a single file to open it for comparison.

When you use one of the Select commands described above, it is easy to ask DeltaWalker Classic to open more file comparisons than you intended, and each one takes system resources. To protect you from that, Open Selected for Comparison opens at most 20 file comparison windows at a time. You can change the limit, or turn it off, with Open up to n file comparison windows at a time under Appearance > Folder Comparisons in the Settings window.