Online Help
Menus and Toolbars
Menus
The menus displayed within ExamDiff Pro vary depending on the comparison mode: there are separate menus for text file comparison, binary file comparison, directory comparison, and text file merge.
The context (right mouse-click) menus also vary based on the comparison mode.
Toolbars
ExamDiff Pro has multiple fully-customizable toolbars, some of which are only active in certain comparison modes. You can also create your own toolbars in the Customize dialog.
Two toolbars are special and cannot be customized: the Differences Bar and the Quick Path View Filter Bar (only for directory comparison). See below for more information on these toolbars.
Toolbar buttons almost always perform the exact same functions as their corresponding menu commands. One notable exception is the Print toolbar button, which, unlike the Files/Directories | Print menu command, prints to the default printer without showing the Print Dialog.
By default, ExamDiff Pro shows the Standard toolbar, the Differences Bar, and the Quick Path View Filter Bar (in directory comparison only). Other built-in toolbars can be enabled from the Customize dialog. The built-in toolbars are:
- The Standard toolbar contains the most commonly-used commands.
- The Editing toolbar contains commands pertaining to editing files or directories.
- The Reports toolbar (not shown in text file merge mode) contains commands pertaining to exporting diff reports.
- The View toolbar contains commands pertaining to how the comparison session is displayed.
- The Navigation toolbar contains commands pertaining to navigating through differences.
- The Search toolbar (only shown in text file comparison or text file merge mode) contains commands for searching through files.
- The Options toolbar contains commands for quickly toggling certain comparison options.
- The Differences Bar is a special toolbar containing the diff combo box (see below for more details).
- The Quick Path View Filter Bar (only shown in directory comparison mode) is a special toolbar for controlling the quick path view filter (see below for more details).
Differences Toolbar
This toolbar contains the diff combo box, which shows all of the differences between files or directories. If no differences are found, the combo box becomes empty and disabled.
When files/directories are compared, the combo box gets the initial focus. This means that scrolling the mouse wheel conveniently navigates between differences. Once the focus switches to one of the main panes you can use the following mouse commands for difference navigation:
- Shift + MouseWheel Up: navigate to the previous difference
- Shift + MouseWheel Down: navigate to the next difference
- MouseWheel Click: set focus to the differences combo box (if it's visible and enabled)
The Skip checkmark to the right of the diff combo box allows marking individual differences as "skipped". Skipped differences are skipped over when navigating through differences.
Quick Path View Filter Toolbar
This toolbar (used in directory comparison only) contains controls for controlling the quick path view filter – an additional view filter that works independently of the view filters specified in the Options | Display | View Filters panel. While the quick path view filter is set, only items whose name or path matches the filter pattern will be displayed. (Note that, unlike the regular path view filter, the quick path view filter is always an include filter, not an exclude filter.)
Like the regular path view filter, the quick path view filter can match either item names or item paths (items matching the filter either with their name or path will be shown), and supports standard wildcard characters (? to match a single character or * to match any number of characters).
The quick path view filter works in conjunction with the regular path view filter (if that is enabled). In other words, if both the regular path view filter and the quick path view filter are used, then only files and directories matching both filters will be displayed.
To set the quick path view filter, enter the desired filter pattern in the quick path view filter combo box, then either press Enter or click the Apply Filter button. You can also select from previously-applied filter patterns using the drop-down menu.
To reset the quick path view filter so it is no longer active, either click the Clear Filter button or clear the text in the quick path view filter combo box and then press Enter.
Toolbar Customization
Toolbars can be made visible or hidden using menu commands under View | Toolbar, or by right-clicking on a toolbar.
Toolbars can be customized by clicking on the "expand menu" chevron on in the end of the toolbar, or by right-clicking on a toolbar and selecting Customize....