ExamDiff Pro Advanced Tutorial #2

Tutorial Description: Sometimes you may need to compare files with line numbers. This tutorial will cover how to remove line numbers from comparison.

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Example: You will be using a correctly formatted version of Jakob Nielsen's The Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design, as well as a version that has all the line numbers switched around. For your convenience, the lists have already been formatted for this tutorial: download top10mistakes_correct.txt into a new file named top10mistakes_correct.txt, and top10mistakes_wrong.txt into a new file named top10mistakes_wrong.txt.

Steps:

1. Open ExamDiff Pro and compare top10mistakes_correct.txt to top10mistakes_wrong.txt.
   
   
   
   
2. Uh-oh. Something is wrong here. The mixed-up line numbers are making ExamDiff Pro think that the files are completely different.
   
   
   
   
3. Click View | Options.... (or press Ctrl + J) and go to the Compare sub-menu. Click on the Parts matching regular expressions radio button. In the text box near where it says Parts matching regular expressions, write "^\d+" (without the quotes).
   
   
   
   
4. Click OK to leave the Options page and click Yes on the "Some comparison options have changed. Would you like to re-compare now?" dialog.
   
   
   
   
5. Another dialog appears, saying "Identical Files." Click on Show Anyway.
   
   
   
   
6. As you can see, the line numbers have been ignored.
   
   
   
   

Conclusion: Regular expression support makes ExamDiff Pro a very powerful file comparison tool. To learn more about using regular expression in the application visit this Online Help page.