Files Comparison

The Compare Files tool can be used to compare files or XML file fragments. To compare two files side by side, open the Diff Files dialog from Tools > Compare Files. Using the Browse drop-down list, open a file in the left side of the dialog, and the file you want to compare it to in the right side. To highlight the differences between the two files, click the Perform File Differencing button. The line numbers on each side help you to quickly identify the locations of the differences.

To compare XML file fragments, you need to copy and paste the fragments you want to compare into each side, without selecting a file. If a file is already selected, you need to close it, using the Close (Ctrl W (Command W on OS X)) button, before pasting the fragments.

You can edit both the source and the target file. The differences are refreshed when you save the modified document.

Figure: The Compare Files Window

Adjacent changes are grouped into blocks of changes. This layout allows you to easily identify and focus on a group of related changes.

When you select a change, a widget containing actions that can be used to copy or append changes from either of the two sides is displayed:

Append left change to right and Append right change to left: Copies the content of the selected change from one side and appends it on the other, after the content of the corresponding change. As a result, the side that the arrows point to will contain the changes from both sides.
Copy change from left to right and Copy change from right to left: Replaces the content of a change from one side, with the content of the corresponding change from the other side.

Oxygen XML Editor offers various diff algorithms to compare files or fragments:

Auto - selects the most appropriate algorithm, based on the compared content and its size (selected by default).
Characters - computes the differences at character level.
Words - computes the differences at word level.
Lines - computes the differences at line level.
Syntax Aware - computes differences for file types or XML fragments that are known by Oxygen XML Editor.
XML Fast - works well on large files or fragments at the expense of accuracy.
XML Accurate - works best on small XML files or fragments and offers accurate results, at the expense of speed.