Merge for Windows | File Comparison, Merging & More
Merge is the visual file comparison (diff), merging and folder
synchronization application from Araxis. Use it to compare and merge source
code, web pages, XML and other text files with native application performance.
Directly open and compare the text from Microsoft Office (Word and Excel),
OpenDocument, PDF and RTF files. Compare images and binary files. Synchronize
folders. Perform code reviews and audits. Work with folder hierarchies
containing thousands of files. Merge integrates with many SCM (version control)
systems and other applications.
Merge is available for Mac OS X (see overview) and Windows. One
licence entitles you to use Merge on both platforms. Merge for Mac OS X is fully
localized into English and Japanese. The Windows version offers a user interface
and online help in English and Japanese .
Benefits
For legal and publishing professionals: instantly identify every
change between different contract or manuscript drafts. Directly open and
compare the text from Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), OpenDocument, PDF and
RTF files. Copy text from other applications (such as Microsoft Word) and paste
it directly into a text comparison window.
For software engineers and web developers: compare, understand and combine
different source file versions. Work quickly and accurately, whether you are
comparing individual files or reconciling entire branches of source code. Use
three-way comparison to integrate changes made by you, and those made by a
colleague, with a common ancestor version. Synchronize a website with its
staging area via FTP using the supplied FTP plugin.
For release and quality control managers: compare different source code branches
to give total confidence that you know and understand every change made to every
file for a specific release. Compare product releases to be certain that only
the expected files have been modified. Create an HTML or XML report of changes
for audit purposes.
For code reviewers and auditors: identify in context every change made between
two or three source code hierarchies. Create a standalone HTML or XML report of
your findings. Add bookmarks and comments to a file or folder comparison, then
save it as a single-file archive for emailing to other team members for review.
Other users: Whether you are working with multiple revisions of text files or
need to keep multiple folder hierarchies in sync (for example, between a desktop
and laptop machine), Merge could help save time and reduce errors by helping you
to work quickly and accurately.
File comparison and merging
Merge enables you to compare and work with different revisions of text files,
such as program source code, XML and HTML files. Merge can extract and compare
the text from Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, PDF and RTF files. XML files can
be shown with special formatting, helping you to see changes more clearly. It
supports files with ASCII, MBCS and Unicode character encodings. A colour-coded
side-by-side comparison makes it easy to pinpoint at a glance similarities and
differences between files. Linking lines are drawn between the documents showing
clearly how they are related.
Point-and-click merging lets you choose the parts of each file that you would
like to add to a final merged version by simply clicking buttons. The in-place
editor with unlimited undo enables complete control over the merged file as you
create it. The file comparison display dynamically updates as the merge
progresses.
Merge shows detailed highlights of changes within lines. It can be configured to
ignore differences in whitespace and line endings, as well as changes in lines
matching specified regular expressions. The latter is useful for ignoring
unimportant changes such as timestamps or expanded version control keywords.
Binary and image
file comparison
Merge doesn’t just compare text files. Use image comparison to compare various
types of image file and instantly see which pixels have been modified. Binary
comparison enables you to identify differences in data files at a byte level.
Three-way comparison and automatic merging
Merge Professional adds advanced three-way visual file comparison and merging to
the Standard Edition’s two-way visual file comparison and merging. This is
particularly useful when more than one person is working on the same set of
files.
Automatic Merging enables swift reconciliation of even the largest files.
Three-way file comparisons can be launched directly from a three-way folder
comparison, allowing efficient integration of entire branches of source code.
Integrated folder hierarchy comparison and
synchronization
Merge supports folder hierarchy comparison and synchronization, enabling you to
compare and merge entire directory trees. This is ideal for detecting changes in
different versions of source code or web pages. You can even use the efficient
byte-by-byte comparison option to verify the contents of recordable CDs or USB
thumbsticks. The Professional Edition of Merge supports three-way folder
comparison, enabling two revisions of a folder hierarchy to be merged with their
common ancestor or some other folder hierarchy. This can be especially useful
when used in conjunction with a source code control or software configuration
management system.
Direct access to FTP sites and configuration
management systems
An FTP plugin gives Merge file and folder comparisons direct access to files
located on an FTP server. It is therefore possible to use a folder comparison to
synchronize a local copy of a website’s content with the main site itself,
provided the main site is running an FTP server.
Merge plugins for Perforce, Subversion, Visual SourceSafe, Mercurial, and Git
are also provided. As well as providing access to older versions of the files
you are comparing, the plugins make it possible to perform a folder comparison
of a local Perforce, Subversion or VSS client workspace against the repository.
Alternatively, different branches (or the same branch at different points in
time) within a repository can be directly compared. A similar plugin for
AllChange is available from Intasoft.
