Saved Manual Synchronization Links

One of the additional features the next version of ExamDiff Pro will introduce is saved manual synchronization links. As you may recall, manual synchronization is the feature that gives users the ability to manually realign lines in text file comparison. An example of this in action is shown below:

In the next ExamDiff Pro, these manual synchronization links will be saved if you close and reopen ExamDiff Pro. If one of the files is modified, however, the links will be reset.

Customizable File and Directory Captions

Another new feature in the next ExamDiff Pro is customizable file and directory captions. As of the next version of ExamDiff Pro, you will be able to change the default captions of the comparison results by simply right-clicking the caption and selecting Change Caption. This is shown below:

In the dialog box that appears, simply enter your desired new caption in the box and click OK as shown in the screenshot below:

As you can now see, the caption changed from the path to the file to your custom desired caption. In this case, "File 1". The results of this change are shown below:

This caption will be kept when the files or directories are recompared, but will be reset on a new comparison.

Windows Environment Variables in Options Paths

In the next ExamDiff Pro you will also be able to use Windows environment variables such as %appdata% and %windir%, for example, in entering various file paths such as that of the default external text editor. In the image below, we choose to use Microsoft Notepad as the default text editor by using the %windir% environment variable to navigate to the Windows directory. This is shown below:

Switching Between Tabs and Spaces in Editor

Another additional feature in the next edition of ExamDiff Pro is the ability to switch between tabs and spaces when creating new tabs in the editor. This option can be changed by navigating to the Options dialogue via Tools | Options and then selecting Convert new tabs to spaces in the File Editing options page. When this checkbox is checked, all new tabs will automatically be converted to spaces. This option is shown below:

To demonstrate what happens when this feature is turned on, whitespace marking is enabled through View | View Whitespace. After pressing tab once, the resulting whitespace created is four space characters rather than a single tab, as shown in the image below:

Customizable Header in Printable Report

In the next version of ExamDiff Pro, you will also be able to change the header of the printable diff report, with the option to change the header title in addition to date and page number. This field can also be made blank to have no header title. To modify this setting from the default, simply go to Files | Page Setup for file comparison, or Directories | Page Setup for directory comparison. An example of the dialog that shows up, along with a custom page heading entered is shown below:

The results of the page setup modifications can be quickly viewed in the ExamDiff Pro Print Preview view, which can be navigated to via Files | Print Preview for file comparison, or Directories | Print Preview for directory comparison. The results of the modifications created above are shown in the image below:

Option to Choose Comparison Order from Windows Explorer

Another additional feature in the next version of ExamDiff Pro is choosing the order of file or directory comparison when comparing two items via Windows Explorer. By default, ExamDiff Pro lets Windows Explorer decide the order of the items. This option can be changed by going to the Options dialog through Tools | Options and then modifying the Order of compared items under Windows Explorer Integration in the Global options page. This dialog is shown below:

The default option is Let Windows Explorer decide which is fairly self-explanatory. Choosing Older first will select the oldest file or directory as the first item in the ExamDiff Pro comparison window, while selecting Newer first will result in the opposite, with the newer file or directory being chosen as the first item.

In the next major release of ExamDiff Pro, users will be given the option to cache directory comparison results for Drill Down (comparing files and directories within the instance of ExamDiff Pro) and Go Up One Level actions. Enabling this feature will significantly speed up browsing through various levels in directory comparison results by not requiring ExamDiff Pro to recompare the two directories at each step into and out of another file or directory. The cache will be reset if you recompare directories manually, or if a file operation (copy or delete) was performed.

This option is disabled by default but can be quickly enabled by navigation to the Options dialog through Tools | Options and then toggling on the Cache diff results for Drill Down/Go Up navigation under Misc in the Directory Comparison Options :: Other page. The dialog should look like the image below, with the setting is enabled in the screenshot:

Note that caching diff results for navigation actions will only work if the navigation occurs in the same instance of ExamDiff Pro. As such, the Run new instance when comparing SUBDIRECTORIES and/or Run new instance when comparing FILES options must be toggled off for this feature to be utilized. These options are located in the same options page as the checkbox for this feature as shown below: