Comparing Files in DreamWeaver using ExamDiff

Posted by Dan on Oct 25, 2006 @ 4:49 PM

I'm an Eclipse guy. When it comes to HTML/code, I've always been a "hands on" kind of guy—wanting complete control over the code. However, I've just recently needed to use DreamWeaver on a project. While I've toiled around w/DreamWeaver in the past, I've never used it extensively.

One of the things I needed to do was to was compare two versions of a file. I was trying to track down a display issue in the HTML. Eclipse has a nice compare built-in, but DreamWeaver doesn't come with any native compare function. It does however allow you to use an external tool for comparing files.

I found that PrestoSoft's ExamDiff (a free visual compare tool) works great w/DreamWeaver. You can buy the professional version for $35, but the free version has all the basics you probably need.

To use the "compare" function in DreamWeaver in the "Files" panel, highlight the two files you want to compare, right-click and select the "Compare Local Files" option. If you do not have compare tool configured, you'll be prompted to select one now (Edit > Preferences > File Compare.) Just browse to the directory you installed ExamDiff and click "OK". Click the "OK" button again to save your preferences. That should be all you need to do.

From now on, whenever you compare two files, it'll pop the two files up side-by-side in ExamDiff. ExamDiff will synchronize scrolling and allows you to quickly jump to differences in the files.

So far, ExamDiff has been excellent.

Categories: HTML/ColdFusion

8 Comments


Comments for this entry have been disabled.