Utilities for quickly comparing documents. A Guide to Data Comparison Software Comparing Excel Files Using Conditional Formatting

To update the parent. The problem was that I was making edits to the parent theme's style.css file. And, of course, I don’t remember what exactly I changed there (and I don’t need to remember it).

But then the moment came when a new version themes for WordPress. Of course, I wanted to see what was new there. But, before updating it, we first needed to save the changes made to the styles. Therefore, I had to remember the name of the program that compares files.

WinMerge

Previously, I used the desktop program WinMerge (winmerge.org). It was a big help when you needed to compare two files. This is what its interface looks like. Sophisticated, cool, programmer.

But there is something simpler.

Quick Diff

But I was too lazy to search for WinMerge on my computer, so I decided to use the wonderful online service “Quick Diff”. He helped us carry out very quickly comparative analysis two fragments of text and find all the differences.

Advantages of the online service

1. Simple and intuitive interface.
2. Comparison of files occurs in a matter of seconds.
3. No pre-registration.
4. There is no need to download or install anything.
5. Absolutely free.

How to compare two text fragments

To compare, just copy the desired fragments into the corresponding Left and Right fields (no difference) and click the button

The result will be below, under the Output heading.

Explanations

What is not in the updated file is highlighted in red, and changes made to the original file are highlighted in green.

But in this example, the only difference is that the modified fragment contains spaces at the beginning of the line. That's why it's highlighted in green. Perhaps this code was cut out, but then when I pasted it back, it turned out with an offset and extra spaces appeared.

Fragment of compared files in the online service “Quick Diff” (www.quickdiff.com)

In general, be careful and see which changes are significant and meaningful to you. Here I showed an example of using the service to compare two style files. But you can use this service to compare what edits the proofreader made to the text, yes, you never know what it will be useful for.

Laziness is the engine of progress, no matter how strange it may sound, some inventions greatly simplify our lives. In my article I want to tell you how to compare two files in accessible ways.
I decided to write about this after one case when I needed to find out what changes the developers made to the procedure for the database during a new update.

And two programs that have been with me for a long time helped me with this:
1.Total Commander
2. Notepad++

Comparing files in TotalCommander

Let's say we already have two files that we need to compare.
1.Then select them in TotalCommander

2. Go to the FILE menu — -> Compare by content.

3. In the window that opens, we have two areas in each of which the contents of the files are visible.

As a result, lines with changes are highlighted in gray, specific differences are highlighted in red.

To move to the next block of differences or return to the previous one in TotalCommander, there are “Next difference” and “Previous difference” buttons in the menu. Here you can activate the editing mode by clicking the “Edit” button, after which you can change the font, copy lines from window to window, and in case of an erroneous action there is a saving “Rollback” button.

After editing, the program will ask what to do with the files: save or not save.

Comparing files in Notepad++

Notepad++ in my opinion is the best notepad that everyone should have. It has great functionality that can be expanded with plugins.

So, how can Notepad++ help us compare files? The answer is simple: you need to download the required plugin.

Open the item “Plugins” -> “Plugin Manager” -> “Show Plugin Manager”.

A large list of various plugins will appear in the manager that opens. Select " Compare " and install.

1. open two files in Notepad++.
2. We make sure that both files are open in tabs next to each other.
3. On the menu bar, go to Plugins -> Compare -> Compare, or use the hot keys – Alt + D and launch the plugin.

In the window that opens, as in TotalComander, We have two areas in each of which the contents of the files are visible.

Red minuses - what was deleted,

Yellow exclamation marks indicate what has changed.

Exiting Compare mode via the Plugins menu –> Compare – > Clear Results, or Ctrl + Alt + D.

It happens that you have two almost identical texts, and you need to clearly see how exactly they differ. A common example: you “recorded” an interview from a tape recorder and sent it to a demanding interlocutor for proofreading. And he, instead of highlighting his edits in color, simply cut out some phrases, added new ones, and swapped paragraphs.

As a result, you seem to be reading your own interview, but you don’t recognize him “in makeup.” Comparing two large texts manually is difficult - is it possible to make this task easier? website will tell you how.

Programmers often face such tasks, so file comparison programs can highlight syntax when comparing program codes of different programming languages. We need such programs to allow comparing texts in the usual .txt format and, preferably, in Word.

For comparison, we took several paragraphs of our article and replaced some words and swapped phrases. Now we will compare.

Microsoft Word

In a programme Microsoft Office Starting from version 2007, you can compare two files without leaving Word. Go to the menu item Review – Compare – Compare... (comparing two versions of a document). We specify two files, click the “More” button and mark the parameters by which you want to compare the text, and also select where to view the changes: in the first file, in the second or in a new one.

The program highlights deleted text with red strikethrough text, inserted text with red underline, and moved paragraphs with green text. In a separate panel on the left (not in the screenshot below) you can track changes for each word, and also see a summary: in our case, 57 corrections, of which 26 insertions, 29 deletions, 2 moves.

WinMerge is a free cross-platform file comparison utility that can be used on a rich "zoo" operating systems, starting with Windows 98. Latest version– WinMerge 2.14.0 – exists both as an installer (6.14 MB) and as a portable assembly. The out-of-the-box program can only compare regular text files, and if we also want to work with office documents (texts in .doc, .docx, .odt formats, tables in .xls, .xlsx, .sxc formats, PDF files and other office files of exotic formats), we need to download the Xdocdiff plugin . The plugin is connected as follows:

1) Unpack the archive with the plugin

2) Copy the xdoc2txt.exe and zlib.dll files to the folder with installed program WinMerge

3) Copy the entire MergePlugins folder along with the amb_xdocdiffPlugin.dll file to the folder with the installed WinMerge program

4) Launch WinMerge, go to the Add-ons menu – List, check the “Enable add-ons” checkbox

5) Go to the Add-ons menu – check the box “Unpack automatically”

That’s it, now you can open our two files: if you want, the usual “TEXT” files, or if you want, the “Word” ones.

The program will warn you that you can also specify archived files, but to do this you will have to download an archiver plugin. However, we are not afraid of its absence; we refuse future similar notifications and receive a window with our two texts. On the left side of the window there are two long columns: these are miniatures of our texts. Paragraphs in which changes were found are highlighted in yellow. Since there were such changes in each of the three paragraphs of our source text, both columns are colored yellow. Specific changed words are highlighted in light yellow.

But the program has many settings, so it’s easy to highlight the words in some other color.

There are many programs for comparing files, including text files, but their main drawback is the price. Compare it! costs $29 per license, Beyond Compare – $30, Compare Suite – $70, DiffDoc Professional – as much as $399.95. Let's look at the example of this last, most expensive program, how much better it is than the free WinMerge.

Download the program (7 MB) and run it. The result is very similar to what Microsoft Office 2007 gave us, only the column layout is different. Red strikethrough – text that has been changed, red underline – text to which the original one has been changed (red strikethrough); blue strikethrough – cut text, green – moved (or added “from scratch”) text.

It turns out that there is practically no difference. If the user honestly bought an expensive Microsoft office suite, then there is no point in spending another $400 on the official purchase and registration of this program. There is no need to use even the “trial” version if the same functionality is provided by standard Word, especially since the unregistered version of DiffDoc Professional reminds you of the need to purchase every 15 minutes.

Finally, let's check one of the many online services for comparing texts: DiffNow

The service seems to support downloading doc files, “swallowed” them, wrote “Files compared successfully,” but instead of the normal result it produced a binary set of zeros and ones, in which, however, it highlighted the differences. Therefore, it is better to copy and paste the text manually. The site highlights changes like this: brown – changed text, blue – deleted, burgundy – added, purple – changed words in changed sentences. The service supports various settings (including the ability to change colors), but we couldn’t get rid of one drawback with any settings: the text is elongated in length like a programmer, so you have to use horizontal scrolling.

Need to compare two Microsoft Excel files? Here are two simple ways do it.

There are many reasons why you might want to take one Excel document and compare it to another. This can be a time consuming task.

it requires a lot of concentration, but there are ways to make your life easier.

Do you need to take a closer look manually or do you want Excel to do some of the heavy lifting

on your behalf, here are two easy ways to compare multiple sheets.

How to Compare Excel Files

Excel allows users to display two versions of a document at once to quickly identify the differences between them:

1. First, open the workbooks you want to compare.
2. Switch to View > Window > Side View.

Comparing Excel files by eye

To begin, open Excel and any workbooks you want to compare. We can use the same technique to compare sheets in the same document

or completely different files.

If more than one sheet is obtained from the same book, it must be separated in advance. To do this, go to View > Window > New Window.

This won't separate the individual sheets permanently, just open a new instance of your document.

This menu will list all tables that are currently open. If you only have two open, they will be selected automatically.

Make your selection and click Fine. You will see both tables appear on the screen.

If it's more convenient, you can use Arrange everything button to switch between vertical and horizontal configuration.

One important option something to be aware of is Synchronized scrolling switching

Enabling this option ensures that when you scroll one window, the other will move in sync. This is important if you are working with a large table

and you want to keep testing one against the other. If for any reason the two sheets are not aligned, simply click Reset window position.

Comparing Excel Files Using Conditional Formatting

In many cases The best way comparing two spreadsheets may be as simple as displaying them on the screen at the same time. However, it is possible to somewhat automate the process.

Using Conditional Formatting

We can check Excel for any discrepancies between the two sheets. This can save a lot of time if all you need to find are the differences between one version and another.

For this method, we need to make sure that the two sheets we are working with are part of the same workbook. To do this, right-click the name of the sheet you want to transfer and select Move or copy.

Here you can use the drop-down menu to decide which document it will be pasted into.

Select all the cells that are filled in the worksheet where you want any differences to be highlighted. A quick way to do this is to click the cell in the top left corner and then use the shortcut

Ctrl + Shift + End.

Switch to Home> Styles> Conditional Formatting> New Rule.

Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format and enter the following:

A1sheet_name!A1

Just remember to post "sheet_name" for any other sheet name. This formula only checks when a cell on one sheet does not exactly match the corresponding cell on another sheet, and flags each instance.

Above you can see the results. All cells containing changes have been highlighted in red, allowing you to quickly and easily compare the two sheets.

Let Excel do the hard work

The above technique demonstrates one way you can let Excel handle some of the heavy lifting. Even if you pay close attention, there is a chance that you might miss a change if you perform this task manually. With conditional formatting, you can be sure nothing slips through the web.

Excel is good at monotonous and detail-oriented work. Once you've mastered its capabilities, you can save yourself some time and effort by using techniques like conditional formatting and a little creativity.

Do you have any advice for comparing documents in Excel? Or do you need help with the processes described in this guide? Either way, why not join the conversation in the comments section below?

Compare is one of the most useful plugins. And if you need to compare 2 files in Notepad++, compare is what you need.

In order to compare files in notepad++, let’s check if the plugin is installed. To do this, open the plugins tab. If it is not installed, go to the Plugin Manager: Plugins - Plugin Manager - Compare - Install. After installing the plugin, the editor will reboot.

In notepad++, comparing files is quite simple: open the two files that need to be compared, press Ctrl+Alt+1 or perform an action in the menu.

After this, we have three sections of the window: the first file, the second and the Compare NavBar in which differences in documents, if any, are graphically marked. Thus, we compared two files Notepad++ editor.

In notepad++, comparing two files turned out to be quite simple, as you can see, the notepad++ editor carries out a line-by-line comparison of files with highlighting of lines with different code. For me, as for many webmasters, this editor is the best.