CompareAll Help

INTRODUCTION

CompareAll is a utility for comparing files, of almost any kind, to determine if they are the same or different. Most comparison tools handle text files and compare the characters. CompareAll quickly compares each file bit by bit to determine if they are the same.

CompareAll can compare almost any kind of file, and is particularly useful for picture files. If you happen to have a lot of pictures, you can easily determine which ones are the same.

COMPAREALL WINDOW

Disk Selector Select the disk drive to browse for a folder of files to compare. In the snapshot above “C: [Local Disk]” is selected. There are two disk selectors (A & B) – one for each location of files to compare.

Folder Selector Select the folder containing the files you want to work with. There are two folder selectors (A & B) – one for each location of files to compare. In the snapshot above “NewPics” and “OldPics” are selected.

File List Displays available files in the selected folders (A & B). Available files to compare are listed based on the selected Extensions. You can select individual files or none (indicating you want the entire folder compared). You can compare:

- 1 File (Source A) vs. 1 File (Source B) – One file selected in each File List

- 1 File (Source A or B) vs. Entire Folder ( A or B) – One file selected and No Files selected.

- Entire Folder (Source A or B) vs. Entire Folder (Source A or B) – No files selected.

Refresh Refresh (re-read) the folder and list the available files. If you have moved or deleted files, you will want to use this function.

Deselect -> Deselects all files in the File List. When no files are selected, and a comparison is performed, all available files in the list will be compared.

Extensions Determines what available files will be displayed (and therefore compared) based on the extension. You can check multiple boxes. If you check “any”, the extension of a files will not matter and all files in the selected folder will be used. If you check “other pattern”, then you can enter a semicolon separated pattern of your own. For example, “*.doc;*.xls”

A <=> A Click to compare files within the selected folder for Source A. Use this button whether you are comparing all files with each other (none selected), or one selected file with the remainder of the folder.

A <=> B Click to compare files within the selected folders for Source A and Source B. Use this button whether you are comparing all files with each other (none selected), or one selected file with the entire contents of the other folder.

B <=> B Click to compare files within the selected folder for Source B. Use this button whether you are comparing all files with each other (none selected), or one selected file with the remainder of the folder.

Progress Bar Displays the progress of the comparison.

Stop Click to stop a comparison in progress. No results will be displayed.

srcA = srcB Clicking this button will set the selected folder for Source B to match the selected folder for Source A. This can make navigation into sub-folders much easier.

srcB = srcA Clicking this button will set the selected folder for Source A to match the selected folder for Source B. This can make navigation into sub-folders much easier.

Help F1 Display the online help. Click this button or hit the F1 key.

About Click this button to open a window with information about CompareAll, including a link to our web site.

Tips When checked, popup tips will be displayed when your cursor hovers over buttons.

RESULTS WINDOW

Results If any files are the same within your comparison, the Results window will be displayed. Otherwise, a notice will popup indicating that all files compares are different.

Results List This area displays the files which have been determined to be identical. Two columns will indicate where the files exist – Source A and/or Source B. Depending on the comparison, you may see both columns indicating the same Source. To open a file, double-click the file name in either column. (You must have to appropriate program available to do this, e.g. Word for Doc files, a picture viewer like TinyShow for bmp, gif, jpg, etc). You can also right-click a column and choose the file from the popup menu.

Select the first or second menu item to show the corresponding file.

Select ‘Properties’ to see the file properties for both files:

Delete Source… Select any number of items from the Results List and then click this button to delete them. (Files are put into your Recycle Bin.) Note that you can Delete from Source A or Source B, depending on which Delete button you use.

Move Source… Select any number of items from the Results List and then click this button to move them to another folder of your choosing. Note that you can Move from Source A or Source B, depending on which Move button you use.

WEB SITE

If you have questions that cannot be answered in this help file, would like to make a bug report or enhancement request, please visit our web site.

You can get to our website by clicking this link: www.FreewareOnly.net