A program for comparing two files. Program for comparing text files Compare Suite - fast and complete analysis of differences between texts

Often, when working, you have to compare various modifications of documents, for example, the original and modified editions of materials prepared in Word or in the form of PDF documents or presentations, working and updated versions of price lists with changed prices in Excel, different versions of text documents, etc. .p. In this case, the question is not which version of the files is more recent (this is already clear from the properties of the files), but what is important is what exactly has changed in the documents in terms of content. Comparing documents manually is a thankless task because it takes too much time and the possibility of errors, because it’s easy not to notice some important detail when viewing. It is much more reasonable to delegate the task of comparing files to a computer. In general, in terms of comparing Word documents, everything is going quite well without the use of auxiliary tools, although in versions of Word 2002 and Word 2003 this feature is reliably hidden from prying eyes, and probably not many users are even aware of its existence. The fact is that to compare documents here you must first download the source file. Then, from the Tools menu, open the Compare and Merge Corrections command, specify the file to compare with the original, and enable the Black Lines checkbox. Only after these manipulations will the “Merge” button turn into the “Compare” button, and when you click on this button, the program will compare the files.

The results of the comparison will be shown in the newly created document in traditional review mode. With the advent of Word 2007, everything has become much easier, since now you just need to switch to the Review tab, click the Compare button and specify the versions of the document you are comparing. The result of the comparison will be presented in a new document, where the reviewed document will be displayed on the left, taking into account the changes, and on the right (one above the other) the original and changed documents. Theoretically, in Excel it is also possible to compare documents using built-in tools, however, only when working in the mode of recording changes. However, this is inconvenient, since each of the changed cells will have to be viewed by hovering the mouse over it, since changes made to the document are displayed in pop-up windows (about the same as regular notes).

Secondly, if the named mode is not first enabled (command "Tools" > "Corrections" > "Select corrections", checkbox "Track corrections"), then it will be impossible to compare XLS files.

As for quickly comparing PDF documents, this feature, of course, is available in Acrobat 9 Pro and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, but these solutions are not installed on every computer. Therefore, if you need to quickly compare Excel tables, PDF documents, presentations, as well as documents in other formats, in particular, text files and program codes, you have to resort to using additional tools. There are many options here, and these can be either complex solutions that allow you to work with several file formats, or highly specialized utilities. A considerable part of such solutions are offered for decent money - for example, the price of one of the most famous complex solutions in this area, Diff Doc, is $99.95, and the Araxis Merge utility, which is very popular among programmers, is priced at €119. At the same time, there are also quite affordable or even free programs of this kind on the market; it is precisely these solutions that we will evaluate in this article. In this case, we will focus on complex solutions, and from highly specialized tools we will note only utilities for quickly comparing Excel tables, since this is one of the most pressing tasks, and comparing Excel documents with complex solutions, although possible, is less effective than using highly specialized utilities .

⇡ Comprehensive solutions for quick comparison of documents

Compare Suite 7.0

Developer: AKS-Labs
Distribution size: 3.79 MB
Spreading: shareware Compare Suite is a convenient tool for quickly comparing text files, MS Office documents, RTF documents, PDF files, web pages (HTM), PowerPoint presentations, binary and some other types of files, as well as files in ZIP and RAR archives and on FTP servers. When comparing program listings in a number of programming languages ​​(Object Pascal, HTML, C/C++, JavaScript, PHP, etc.), syntax highlighting is provided. There is functionality for synchronizing text files and comparing folders with subfolders. The demo version of the program (available in Russian localization) is operational for 30 days and is fully functional. The commercial version costs $60. The technology for comparing files in Compare Suite is simple. First, you select a method for comparing files, for which you need to select one of the options in the “Compare” menu: “character by character”, “word by word”, “by keywords”. Classic character-by-character comparison is useful in situations where you need to capture the slightest differences in the spelling of words - for example, when comparing program listings. Word-by-word document comparison is typically used to compare different versions of the same file. Using the keyword comparison method, you can compare dissimilar documents even when word-by-word comparison is not possible.

After selecting the comparison method, in the “File” menu you need to select the “New file comparison” command and indicate the files to compare in the left and right panels. The program will analyze the files and highlight all existing differences (added, changed and deleted fragments) in different colors. Additionally, you can create a comparison report with detailed information about the files being compared (command "File" > "Report"). When comparing files other than text, you should keep in mind that their comparison in all complex solutions (both in Compare Suite and in other utilities) is carried out after conversion to text format. In practice, this means, for example, that if in the compared versions of a Word document the same word in a particular sentence appears on different lines, then it will be included in the list of changes. When comparing XLS documents, data from tables is extracted before analysis, and the differences found are displayed line by line in text format, indicating the sheet name and column names, which allows you to navigate the data. The same scheme is used to compare PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Free program for comparing text files and folders. It has a user-friendly interface, syntax highlighting for many programming languages, as well as extensive settings. In addition, the program can create reports and work in conjunction with many version control systems.

Human laziness can work wonders! Laziness in the good sense of the word :). Well, you must agree that it is unreasonable to do routine work manually if it is possible to entrust it to a computer. So today’s program was found precisely when we were trying to shift the labor-intensive process of comparing different text files onto the PC’s shoulders.

And it was like this... Recently Ruslan Bogdanov and I were translating website in HTML5 using Schema.org markup. At the same time, it was necessary to often compare the old (not yet edited) version of each page with the new one, in which certain edits had already been made.

And after a couple of hours of working in two Notepad windows, the idea occurred to me that there should be a program to automatically search for differences in text files. This question was asked to the ubiquitous Google, and such a program was found :). It's called WinMerge.

This program automatically finds and displays the difference in the contents of two text files, which allows you to compare and edit open documents much faster than with a regular visual search! In terms of its capabilities, WinMerge is only slightly inferior to paid competitors, such as, for example, Compare Suite:

Comparison with a paid analogue

In addition, both programs support a variety of encodings (including Unicode), can be included in almost any version control system and allow you to compare even archived documents (to support WinMerge this function, the installed 7-ZIP archiver and a special plugin are required).

Installing WinMerge

The program has two versions: a regular installer and a portable version. To work with a portable one, you will only need to unpack it from the archive and (if desired) run the bat file ( Register.bat) to integrate application items into the system context menu (the second “body file” ( UnRegister.bat) you can remove this item).

If you choose a standard installer, you will need to run it from the downloaded archive and follow the instructions of the installation wizard. You can agree to all offers by clicking “Next” until you get to the component selection screen:

Here, carefully check the default language(s): it should be “Russian”. You can also install additional plugins that will add several new prefilters to the program.

The next step requiring your intervention will be the window for selecting additional tasks:

By default, WinMerge only creates a shortcut in the Quick Launch bar and is integrated into the context menu. You can also create a shortcut on the Desktop (which, IMHO, is more convenient :)) and add the program folder to the system path for quick access.

Comparing text files in WinMerge

Once the installation is complete, a blank WinMerge window will open. To get started, you will need to open a couple of files that are to be compared. This can be done by calling the “Open” item from the “File” menu, or by clicking on the button of the same name on the toolbar:

In the window that opens, you are given the opportunity to specify the files that will be compared by clicking the “Browse” button, as well as select filters (used to exclude certain types of files when working with folders) and an unpacker for archived files (if the appropriate plugin is installed).

In fact, all we have to do is select the files that will be displayed in the left and right panels, and we can click “Ok”.

The WinMerge window will look something like this:

So what can we do with all this:

  1. Using the buttons on the toolbar (or the context menu), you can navigate through the differences found and quickly copy changes from one file to another.
  2. Using the Difference Map (Locations window), you can quickly assess the location of differences in different documents. At the same time, there are several color symbols on the “map”:
  • yellow - indicates any difference in the documents;
  • red - indicates the selected difference;
  • gray - indicates a missing part of the code in one of the documents.
  • Using the Differences window, you can see the part of the code that is different. You cannot edit the code here, but you can copy it using the function in the context menu.
  • And, of course, using windows with open documents, we can quickly copy code fragments and completely edit it. In fact, we have before us an ordinary text editor, like an advanced Notepad with syntax highlighting for many programming languages ​​(and you can customize the colors of the highlighting at your discretion for each language in the settings)!
  • When working with the program, I also advise you to periodically pay attention to the status line at the very bottom of the working window. In it you can sometimes see various hints, as well as a counter for differences found.

    Upon completion of working with documents (or if necessary), you can save both both edited files or only individual ones. To do this, go to the “File” menu and select “Save file on the left” or “Save file on the right”, respectively:

    Setting up the program

    In principle, after installation the program is completely ready for use. However, you can slightly improve or change some of its functions. The first thing you can do is add convenience to yourself :). You can do this by going to the “View” menu and activating the “Show line numbers” and “Word wrap” items:

    This will add a column with line numbering in front of the code panel, and the lines themselves will now fit into any panel size due to automatic text wrapping (while the line structure is completely preserved)!

    In the same menu, you can activate some other features (such as displaying non-printing characters and tab indents), as well as disable any elements of the working window (for example, you can disable the comparison panel and/or the “map” of differences).

    For some programming languages ​​and programs, WinMerge has add-ons that allow you to ignore certain parameters when comparing files. If you checked the option to install plugins when installing the program, you can find these options in the “Add-ons” menu:

    Here in the “Pre-comparison” section we have access to add-ons for:

    • ignoring comments;
    • ignoring columns (apparently for HEX);
    • ignoring punctuation;
    • ignoring tabs;
    • ignoring line numbers.

    To be honest, I didn’t use these plugins, since the standard capabilities of WinMerge were quite enough for me, but they may be useful to someone;).

    If these features of the program are not enough for you, then you can easily adjust almost everything in “Settings”:

    You can get lost in these settings in no time, since there are a lot of them, but I will only pay attention to those that may be useful to us for further work.

    In the first group of settings (“Basic”), I would recommend activating two options: “Automatically set to first difference” (for greater convenience) and “Folder comparisons” in the “Enable multiple comparison windows for” section. The last option will allow you to open an unlimited number of tabs with comparisons when comparing folders (which we will talk about below).

    The following settings to be changed are located in the “Comparison” section:

    In principle, you don’t have to change anything here, but during the work I encountered a number of inconveniences that can be avoided by activating some items in this settings section.

    First, you can disable the comparison of non-printable characters. This can significantly narrow down the search for differences in files.

    Secondly, you can enable skipping of empty lines and commands in different registers, which will also reduce the number of mismatches between files.

    Thirdly, there is an option to filter comments, which is similar to that in the “Add-ons” menu. All these settings are optional, but can sometimes significantly reduce the number of differences found in files.

    Compare folders

    In addition to the fact that in WinMerge we can automatically compare files, we can also compare folders, finding all the changed files in them! However, there is no special button for opening a folder in the program. How can this be? We need to indicate in the “Left” field any file from the directory we need, and then remove its name, leaving only the folder name:

    After this manipulation, the “Right” field will automatically switch to the “Directory Selection” mode and we will only have to select the desired folder.

    A special feature of the folder comparison mode is that all files are displayed in one general list. In this case:


    Now, if in “Settings” you have activated the option of multiple tabs when comparing folders, then you can open any subfolders and files - their comparison will open in a new tab.

    Generating reports

    If you work in a development team or need to present the results of your work to third parties, then the function of creating reports based on comparison results will be useful to you. You can find this function in the “Tools” menu:

    The report generation window contains only two fields: in the first we specify the file to save (possibly non-existent), and in the second we select the report style. There are four style options available in WinMerge:

    1. Comma separated list (plain text, such as a TXT file).
    2. List with delimited tabs (also a text file).
    3. Simple HTML (web page format (in my opinion, the most convenient)).
    4. Simple XML (also better to open in a browser, since this format allows you to collapse unnecessary comparison branches).

    Select any of the styles, and then click “Browse” and indicate in which folder and under what name (as well as with what name extension) to save the report. Click “Ok” and rejoice :).

    Here (in the “Tools” menu) you will find a few more items that will appeal only to serious developers. These are functions for creating patches and filtering the contents of files and directories.

    The first allows you to create files containing a list of differences in different versions of the source code. This list can be used, for example, to automatically correct the final version in the final project using various version control systems.

    The second function allows you to set exceptions for compared files in directories by mask or file type. There are also ready-made presets for various types of projects and the ability to create your own filters of any complexity.

    Advantages and disadvantages of the program

    • high accuracy of difference recognition;
    • the ability to quickly replace text fragments;
    • the ability to compare folders;
    • reporting function;
    • extensive settings.
    • You cannot compare more than two documents;
    • to support archives, installation of additional software is required;
    • There is no keyword search function.

    Conclusions

    After testing several free file comparison programs, I found that WinMerge works the most correctly. The percentage of errors when matching files was minimal, which means that the program can be used in everyday activities. At the same time, the number of false recognitions can be further reduced by working with the settings.

    If you work with texts and often need to compare different versions of the same document, then WinMerge can significantly facilitate and speed up your work. But the computer was created for this purpose: to take on as much routine as possible, leaving us time for creativity;).

    P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

    Free solutions

    Data synchronization requires programmers, system administrators and time and appropriate skills. However, the correct selection of tools is no less important. Version control, working with projects, backup, merging and visual comparison of files is not a complete list of tasks related to synchronization in one way or another.

    The guide includes 10 programs that can be called largely universal: they are not tied to a specific service or application, and allow you to perform the above (and less specialized) tasks not only through a graphical interface, but also in command line mode.

    The comparison criteria are as follows:

    • Interface: support for display modes, saving sessions, customization options for toolbars and columns
    • Text editor functionality, working with source code
    • Merge and synchronization methods, three-way comparison capability
    • Export reports, create patches (diff)
    • Additional features: integration with third-party applications, support for extensions, protocols, etc.

    SmartSynchronize

    SmartSynchronize is a cross-platform program for comparing data, directory structures and their contents. In fact, the program is free for non-commercial use, however, a single-user license costs 39 USD.

    Comparison modes are presented in the program's welcome window. In addition to the file selection dialog, you can view the history and select a saved profile. Also in the Preferences you can configure filters: file filters - to filter out files by name and extension, and directory filters - allow you to create a list of exceptions.

    To compare files, a two-panel side-by-side mode is used with synchronous scrolling of the contents of both panels. There are few conventions in SmartSynchronize, but thanks to the linking lines, comparison and merge operations are very intuitive. SmartSynchronize specifies where and in what direction a section will be added from one file to another. Inserting text is done with one click, eliminating the need for a context menu.

    Document encoding and syntax can be defined manually, syntax highlighting is provided for many programming and markup languages, line numbering and other editing functions inherent in integrated development environments (IDEs).

    Overall, SmartSynchronize is highly customizable, but all settings are distributed across different sections of the menu, which takes some getting used to. There are not enough display modes or toolbar settings.

    In directory comparison mode, a list of files and the status for each of them is displayed; a preview is available at the bottom of the window. The comparison method - by content or only by size and time - is determined in the Edit → Preferences settings. The number of information columns (file type, date) cannot be increased, although existing ones can be disabled.

    SmartSynchronize implements both one-way data merging with left or right sides, as well as regular synchronization. The configuration can be saved for later loading by taking a snapshot of the file structure. As the developers explain, the program does not recognize file attributes, so there is no point in using it as a backup utility. Working with archives is also not provided, as well as with remote directories.

    In addition to the above, there is an additional three-way merging method called 3-Way-Merge, which allows you to merge differences between multiple versions of files, with each of the three documents being editable independently of each other.

    Comparison functions are undoubtedly in demand by programmers during version control. Therefore, in conclusion, it is worth referring to an alternative solution from the same company -. The program is a CVS client with integrated SmartSynchronize tools.

    Resume. SmartSynchronize offers good tools for working with files and directories, which in some places cannot be customized and does not go beyond the basic capabilities.

    [+] Three-way merger
    [+] Convenient text editor
    [−] Lack of documentation
    [−] Inability to synchronize remote directories and archives

    WinMerge

    WinMerge is a program for comparing and merging files and directories in Windows. It can be used as a standalone tool or in conjunction with projects. WinMerge has a built-in text editor with support for programming languages, highlighting and line numbering.

    There are two modes of working with data, combined into a dialog for selecting files and folders. When comparing, two types of filters are available: file filters and string filters. This allows you to use various add-ons and operate with regular expressions, filtering out the necessary data types when comparing.

    In file comparison mode, both files are displayed in the window, on the left and right sides. For easy navigation through the content, a map (“Locations”) is provided. Lines that have differences are marked in color and can also be viewed in the Differences panel. Basic merging operations are available in the Merge section.

    The functionality of the text editor deserves special attention. The appearance can be modified. In addition to syntax highlighting and line numbering, work with scripts is provided, and functionality can be expanded through add-ons. Additions relate to the unpacker, viewer and script editor.

    When comparing directories, the results are displayed in a tabulated list. It contains information about the name of the file (directory), its location, the result of the comparison, date, extension and other information. You can customize the display using columns. If necessary, you can activate recursive mode or switch to a tree view for easy navigation.

    WinMerge allows you to perform the same tasks in different ways - including using drag-and-drop or through the Explorer context menu. You can create projects for quick access to data and settings. WinMerge works in command line mode, and the program can also be used in conjunction with version control systems (TortoiseSVN, Visual Studio, Rational ClearCase, etc.).

    Resume. WinMerge is a program primarily focused on working with projects. SVN integration, a functional editor, filters and extensions all perfectly complement the basic data comparison capabilities.

    [+] Support for extensions
    [+] Functional editor
    [+] Integration with third-party applications
    [−] No three-way comparison

    Meld

    Meld is a cross-platform program (OS X, Linux, Windows) for synchronizing files and directories. With its help, both two- and three-way comparisons are carried out. First of all, the Meld toolkit will be useful to developers, since integration with version control systems is possible: Git, Bazaar, Mercurial, Subversion and others.

    Despite supporting multiple platforms, the application is far from stable on Windows. For example, tabs and windows do not always open and close correctly. The problems may be related to the PyGTK library included in the installer. It was not possible to launch the program immediately and only as an administrator. Errors occur all the time, as evidenced by this.

    When comparing files, you can use a text filter or search (regex syntax is supported). Syntax highlighting is provided (a library is used), line numbering, space counting and other options that need to be activated through the settings, since they are disabled by default. Insertions, changes and conflicts in the document are highlighted, you can quickly navigate through the list of changes and export in diff format. The connection between files can be easily tracked using connecting lines and the required sections can be merged with one click.

    Scanning directory files is very slow. This is because the comparison is based on content rather than size and timestamp. The problem can be solved by checking the box next to the corresponding option in the settings. The set of available speakers is very limited: size, modification date and resolutions. Although you can use a file filter, viewing a long list of files still turns into a routine process: you cannot instantly stop scanning, collapse the file tree, or quickly move to the desired elements.

    Developers will be interested in the third operating mode of the application - Version Control View. Meld supports a command line interface, so it integrates with Git, Bazaar, Mercurial, Subversion and many others.

    Resume. The Meld program has proven itself well in the Linux environment, which cannot be said about functioning on Windows. Unstable operation and inconvenient interface, lack of sessions, insufficient configuration flexibility... On the other hand, the program's tools are not bad, and a high-quality adaptation of Meld for Windows is perhaps only a matter of time.

    [+] Three-way comparison
    [+] Support for version control systems
    [−] Slow and unstable performance in Windows
    [−] Inconvenient and uninformative interface

    Diffuse

    Diffuse is a cross-platform product for Windows, OS X, Linux and BSD, with an interface similar to Meld (based on the PyGTK library), but with functional differences. Integration with Bazaar, CVS, Darcs, Git, Mercurial, Monotone, RCS, Subversion and other environments is announced.

    Continuing the comparison with Meld: Diffuse is characterized by stability, there are no sudden freezes. Detailed documentation is available, the interface has been translated into Russian. However, directory comparison is not included in the toolkit; the program only includes functions for comparing files and editing them. In Diffuse, you can find several merging modes: - two-, three- and multi-way. Thus, there can be any number of sources of comparison, the only question is speed and convenience. Regarding the second aspect, we can only say that there are no sessions here - accordingly, working with large projects in Diffuse is questionable.

    Differences are marked with color, a Comparison Summary is available near the scroll bar, and buttons on the control panel are used to navigate through the list of changes. Line numbering and syntax highlighting with the ability to manually switch are enabled by default. Unlike other similar editors, in Diffuse you cannot immediately select an arbitrary section of text; to do this, you need to double-click on the content. Otherwise, you can select text and perform other actions only line by line.

    Obviously, in Diffuse there are no differences between files, so merging lines is done in a less intuitive way. All available commands are collected in the “Merge” section, where you need to go every time if there are no commands in the context menu. In SmartSynchronize or other mentioned solutions, many operations are performed in one click.

    Working with version control systems is possible via the command line; a list of commands with descriptions is given in.

    Resume. This kind of functionality is in demand when merging several text documents. The program does not have the disadvantages inherent in Diffuse's closest analogue - Meld. But, unfortunately, comparison of directories and reporting were left out.

    [+] Convenient work with strings
    [+] CVS integration
    [+] Multi-window merge
    [−] No sessions
    [−] Marking changes is not intuitive

    Perforce P4 Merge

    P4Merge is not often mentioned among other free products (for example, compared to WinMerge). In addition, it is not easy to find this program among other components of the Perforce complex. Perforce is a commercial cross-platform version control system with a wide range of applications, not least due to plugins and integration with various products (IntelliJ IDEA, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Eclipse, emacs, etc.) . However, P4 Merge can work autonomously from the Perforce server; just download the program from the developer’s website to use it for free.

    The main operations are file comparison (Diff) and merging (Merge). The document editor is extremely simple: there is numbering, but no syntax highlighting. You cannot edit files in two panels on the fly; you need to select one of the panels, enable editing mode and then save the changes. The differences are marked, and navigation buttons are provided to navigate between them. The easiest way to navigate changes is using connecting lines. In general, the P4 Merge interface is not convenient enough: there is no summary of the differences, statistics on changes are presented as a summary figure, without detail, and to view the changes you need to use a manual update.

    When listing other features of the program, it is worth mentioning image comparison. In this mode, two useful functions were discovered: highlighting differences and merging two files into one. At the same time, it is not clear why the editor menu contains unused commands, such as changing encoding, comparison methods, and others that relate to comparing text files, but not images.

    Resume. Of course, P4 Merge has many functional limitations, especially when compared to paid products. The application can be considered purely as an addition to the Perforce server. Perhaps, in search of the necessary tools, you should pay attention to other components available on the developer’s website.

    [+] Merge diagram in Merge mode
    [−] Poor functionality
    [−] Inability to edit on the fly
    [−] Lack of merge commands

    The procedure for comparing two files is perhaps one of the most common and popular. You can compare files by type, size, or content. One of the most popular procedures is comparing files by their content. The essence of this procedure is to find differences in the contents of files. You can compare any files, not just text ones. Today we will compare two word files.

    Comparing files in Total Commander

    To perform comparison operations between several files using this program, you need to select the first file for comparison in one of the panels, and select the second in the second panel.

    Then open the “file” menu item and go to the “compare by contents” item.

    A window should appear divided into two columns. At the top of the columns there is a box with a file selection function. Having selected a file to compare, you will need to click the “compare” button.

    The contents of the compared files will be displayed in two columns. Differences found in the files will be highlighted. To edit the contents of the file, you must click the “edit” button.

    How to compare files using the Windows command line

    To compare files using Windows, you need to go to the “start” menu, go to the “command line” section and enter a command with the following content:

    FC File Location #1 and File Location #2.

    In our case it turns out like this

    FC C:\User\Admin\Desktop\1\1.docx C:\User\Admin\Desktop\1\2.docx

    As a result, a window will be formed displaying the results of the file comparison. When comparing small files with a small number of differences, the process of editing them will be carried out quite quickly. But with large file sizes for comparison, this procedure will be quite labor-intensive.

    How to compare files online?

    Comparing files using special programs always involves installing a specific software product that performs the comparison procedure. But this method is not always convenient. Sometimes you have to understand the program interface or the required functionality may simply not be enough. In this case, it is better to resort to online services.

    Today you can find a large number of online services for comparing files. The online file comparison procedure allows you to quickly and without unnecessary software installations compare the required files. Typically, these services have a simple and intuitive interface designed for the average Internet user. Processing of operations necessary for comparison usually occurs in seconds, since it does not depend on the resources of your system.

    We go to the website https://www.kontrolnaya-rabota.ru/s/online-calculators/sravnenie-tekstov/. Select the files that need to be compared. Just below, click Compare text files.

    In these ways you can compare different types of files, not just text ones. All of the file comparison methods considered, of course, have both advantages and disadvantages. But thanks to each of the ones discussed, you can easily compare the contents of files or their structure and make changes.

    How to compare two files? This question may arise when you need to quickly and conveniently see the differences in the contents of two files. Naturally, I would not want to install additional programs, but rather make comparisons using familiar, working tools.

    There is an excellent program for working with files. It's called Notepad++. This is where there is a convenient opportunity to quickly compare two files.

    Comparing two files in Notepad++

    I want to say right away that in the Notepad++ program you can compare many files, html, php, and js. But Word files cannot be compared correctly; their encoding is not suitable for this program. These files will be compared in Word itself, we will look at this below.

    We open the files that we want to compare.

    To start the comparison, we need to run the Campare plugin. To do this, go to the tab Plugins – Campare – Campare.

    Comparing files in Notepad

    If this plugin is not already installed in your version of Notepad++, this is easy to do. Go to Plugins – Plugin Manager – Show Plugin Manager. There, from the general list of plugins, select Campare, check the box next to it and press the Install button.

    Our files open in two tabs, which conveniently and clearly highlight all the differences in our files. Then it’s a matter of technique; finding the right places won’t be too difficult.

    Differences in file contents in Notepad

    To exit the comparison mode, press either the hot keys Ctrl + Alt + D, or the Plugins tab – Campare – Clear Results.

    But let's not dwell on just one program. We also have the well-known Total Commander, in which you can also compare two files in a quick and convenient way.

    Comparing two files in Total Commander

    Open the Total Commander program

    Click on the desired file and, while holding down the Ctrl button, click on the second file for comparison. Both files stand out against the general background.

    Comparing files in Total Commander

    A new window opens in which we see the contents of our files and the differences between them. They, again, are conveniently and clearly highlighted.

    File differences in Total Commander

    Click the Edit button and make the necessary changes to the files. For ease of use, you can change the font and use the Next Difference, Previous Difference, Rollback, and Encoding buttons.

    After all the changes, click on the close button and we will be asked to save the changes made.

    That's all, again, convenient, fast, understandable.

    Well, in conclusion, we need to consider how you can compare Word files. It has its own encoding, so the Word program is best suited for this.

    Comparing two files in Microsoft Word

    Open Microsoft Word

    Find the Review tab, select it, look for the Compare item.

    Comparing files in Microsoft Word

    A new Compare Versions window opens, where you need to select the Source document and the Document to compare. Click OK. You can, if desired, view additional comparison settings.

    A new file opens in which the differences are highlighted and which, if desired, can be saved or corrected as needed.

    These are the ways we compare two files. No additional programs were needed, everything was already built into the usual tools. Using the same Notepad++, I was able to find the right places for corrections in a few minutes.