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Am I the only one who finds the new way to compare files not very useful?

The old one in v7.x and older was one of the best features of textpad and I used it all day every day for the past decade...

I need to see at a glance what has changed and only that, seeing everything just makes what I am looking for get lost in the noise.

Do I have to choose between the old way to compare files and the new Unicode editing support in 8.0.0 ?

From my point of view above-and-below textual comparison without context has always been next to worthless. I love SBS visual comparison in context, provided there's a good hot-key, like ALT-LEFT ALT-RIGHT to jump from change to change.

Whether I'll use it in TextPad a whole lot is less clear; usually when I want to compare things I use P4Merge (in Git) or WinMerge from Windows Explorer.

Kiwi6469 wrote:I love SBS visual comparison in context, provided there's a good hot-key, like ALT-LEFT ALT-RIGHT to jump from change to change.

IS there such a hot key? I assume the combos given by Kiwi6469 were just examples, as they don't work in TP 8.1.2. Between 8.0.2.and 8.1.2, the option to use the old compare was added. Also the Help was updated for Compare Files, but with nothing about navigating the Results window.

I'd still like to use the SBS compare, but I need to compare two files of about a quarter of a million lines each with a few dozen differences, and it's just not feasible without a command for "next/previous difference".

Edward

Configure > Preferences > Keyboard > Categories: Tools > Commands: NextDifference > Press new shortcut key: ... > Assign > Ok

Are you even aware of all the settings TextPad offers?

AmigoJack wrote:Configure > Preferences > Keyboard > Categories: Tools > Commands: NextDifference > Press new shortcut key: ... > Assign > Ok
Are you even aware of all the settings TextPad offers?

Obviously not, and thanks for the clue. But how the heck am I supposed to know the command even exists when it isn't in any menu? Menus are the normal way of discovering commands under Windows, and I did an exhaustive search of the menus, including the context menu.

Edward

No, not every feature goes to the (window) menu - there can still be countless different context menus. Likewise I'm always browsing thru all the preferences of each program, also to find/change keyboard shortcuts.

But yes: every program lacks an exhaustive search feature - a search with which you can find captions and texts thruout every window of it, including menu items. It would make things to much easier (since manuals are rarily made today anymore). So far I'm the only one programming that into my own programs.

AmigoJack wrote:But yes: every program lacks an exhaustive search feature - a search with which you can find captions and texts thruout every window of it, including menu items. It would make things to much easier (since manuals are rarily made today anymore). So far I'm the only one programming that into my own programs.

Bravo! Even 40+ years ago, I was saying "the program isn't finished until the documentation is written". At least Office 2002 still has local documentation and can search it, though that's no use for anything not in the docs. Haven't tried later versions. The world tends toward chaos ...

Edward