![]() ![]() ![]() Merge operations (copying blocks between the files) is intuitive, and multi-level undo is supported should you change your mind. These are the kinds of things that makes Beyond Compare such a joy to use. In fact, due to the nice "painting" method of selecting files BC supports, some of these file and folder maintenance operations are actually more convenient to do in Beyond Compare then they are in a Full File Browser. But in addition to comparing and synchronizing folders, you can perform standard folder operations from within Beyond Compare, like moving, renaming, deleting, copying outside of the tree, adjusting file properties, etc. Synchronization is a pleasure to use, you can configure a wide variety of options for deciding what exactly synchronization should take into consideration, and after providing you a summary of what is about to take place, Beyond Compare flawlessly proceeds to copy, replace and even delete (if configured to do so), in order to synchronize folders trees. We love the colors and the icons used to indicate folder and file differences - you'll be able to tell at a glance not just which files are older, newer, different, but also very usefully be able to see which folders have "orphans" which is a common way that directory trees can differ. Beyond Compare handles both of these seamlessly, and one of the nicest things about it is how easy it is to move around the folder trees while the program keeps the sides synchronized. There are two main kinds of comparisons you will be spending your time doing in Beyond Compare, comparing folders and comparing files. Select a file or folder, right click, and choose "Select as Left Side", then go to the other folder and say "Compare to." Beyond compare then quickly launches and displays the folder or file comparison with the left and right sides selected. If you use a file manager a lot, whether it be windows explorer or one of the commercial file browsers, you'll love the way Beyond Compare integrates into the right click menu. But we'll try to highlight some of our favorite things that Beyond Compare does especially well (click images for larger pictures): It's impossible to do justice to the entire feature set of Beyond Compare - there's just too much to rave about. We all know to make backups - but what happens when something goes wrong and you need to compare your backup with your current nonworking version? That's where a compare/merge/sync tool comes in.Īlmost everyone could benefit from a file&folder compare/sync tool in one way or another, but certain people, like people who work with programming language source code files, are simply masochists if they work without one. Or maybe you've been editing some source code file or html web page file and suddenly find you've messed up the file somehow, but can't remember how - and you want to be able to compare the file against a prior known working version to identify the new changes that could be at fault. Now a new release is out, but of course it doesn't have your changes in it, so you want to compare your modified old version with the new files and merge your changes into the new version. Or maybe you downloaded some files at some point, and made some changes to them. Have you ever downloaded an update of some program/package full of files and wondered what's been changed since the last release you have sitting on your computer? Do you work with text files and ever lose your place and forget which is the latest file, and wonder what the differences are? Do you keep copies of deep directory trees and want to just add the new files to your backups? Not many people realize how important such a tool is in a whole variety of situations. Chances are if you're reading this review you're a software lover, but you probably don't have a compare tool installed on your computer. We were proud to be able to offer a 50% discount to all members through the end of March, 2005 (now expired).īefore we go into the feature set in Beyond Compare, we need to say something about the importance of having a good File&Folder Compare/Merge/Synchronize Tool. While there are a lot of file and folder compare/merge/sync tools on the market to choose from, and while there is still room for some improvement in Beyond Compare, no other tool comes even close to it in terms of total user experience.īeyond Compare easily wins our award for Best Tool in its Class. The license terms for the program even allow you to use it on multiple home or work computers, which is an unusually nice gesture - kudos to Scooter Software for this approach. A 30-day trial version is available on the program home page. Beyond Compare is a shareware product released by Scooter Software, priced very reasonably (normally $30, as of March 18th, 2005). ![]()
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