Araxis Merge is still my favorite

[noutters]

One of the best file and folder compare tools that I've found is Araxis Merge.
I've been using it for more than 5 years but still check regularly for competitors. I can not find one, both for file compare or folder compare/synchro.
Everything is visually very intuitive and well thought. 

Give it a shot at http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.html

File compare:


Folder compare:

[mouser]

araxis merge is a fantastic tool, there can be no doubt.
it works a bit differently than beyond compare, which is sometimes good and sometimes not as good.

it has some unique fantastic features like 3-way comparison, and has an excellent in-place editor which blows beyond compare away in terms of being able to do serious edits while comparing.

note that in our big review we did talk about how good araxis is (https://www.donation...pareTools/index.html).

the main problem with araxis is.. the price.

[Mr.B]

it has some unique fantastic features like 3-way comparison, and has an excellent in-place editor which blows beyond compare away in terms of being able to do serious edits while comparing

Not for long...  When Beyond Compare 3 Professional is released, it's 3-way merge and in-place editing will close the gap.  I've tried Araxis Merge.  It doesn't stand a chance... 

[Darwin]

When Beyond Compare 3 Professional is released, it's 3-way merge and in-place editing will close the gap.

Yes, but WHEN will Beyond Compare be released?! Even the lead developer holds little hope for a public beta being released on schedule (July of this year).

I'm not disputing your suggestion that it'll be a killer app; just wondering when we'll ever see it!

[Jamil]

I agree with the first post 100%.  I think Araxis Merge is a better comparison and merge utility.

I actually used and licensed Beyond Compare prior to using Araxis Merge, but it has a few short comings that I believe is handled better in Araxis Merge.  After evaluating Merge for a couple of weeks, I licensed it and use it more than Beyond Compare.

Here's my main reason why:

Araxis Merge does not reformat the appearance of files being compared.  Beyond Compare will add spacing between lines to match lines it believes are the same for two files being compared.  The reality is that it's not always correct in its assumptions, and I end up looking at a mess.  I prefer Merge's way of handling this with synch lines.  In addition, when the assumptions for matched lines are indeed incorrect, manually aligning in Beyond Compare is not intuitive at all.

We all know what else Merge offers that BC does not, so I won't bother repeating it.

[Darwin]

BTW - still waiting for that beta of Beyond Compare 3 to be released... 

[Darwin]

Just to clarify - you'll note from the review that in March of 2005 BC 3 was supposed to be "well on it's way to release". Almost three years later they've yet to ship a beta... This isn't meant as a criticism of Scooter software (BC 2.5 does what it does very well and I'd far rather they ship something relatively stable when they do enter beta testing) per se, but this is starting to take on a Longhorn-esque developmental flavour!

Now having said the above - looking at Araxis Merge all over again all I can say is: BUGGER! $129 gets a standard licence WITHOUT the three way merge. That costs $269! Ouch. I've no doubt that it's a killer app, but there's a lot of sticker shock! I do hope that BC gets released soon, but I'm not holding my breath...

[Jamil]

Build 2008.3569 of Araxis Merge was released not too long ago.  This version adds a couple of handy features: XML support and automatic text extraction from some popular document formats.

The XML support is pretty handy. Take the following two XML files:

file1.xml--

[Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><validation profile="Database Testing"><query name="Test" sql="SELECT Field1, Field2, Field3, Field4, Field5&#xA;FROM dbo.Test"><row><column name="Field1">A</column><column name="Field2">A</column><column name="Field3">A</column><column name="Field4">A</column><column name="Field5">A</column></row><row><column name="Field5">B</column><column name="Field1">B</column><column name="Field2">B</column><column name="Field3">B</column><column name="Field4">B</column></row></query></validation>

file2.xml--

[Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<validation profile="Database Testing">
  <query name="Test" sql="SELECT Field1, Field2, Field3, Field4, Field5&#xA;FROM dbo.Test">
    <row>
      <column name="Field1">A</column>
      <column name="Field2">A</column>
      <column name="Field3">T</column>
      <column name="Field4">U</column>
      <column name="Field5">V</column>
    </row>
    <row>
      <column name="Field5">Y</column>
      <column name="Field1">Z</column>
      <column name="Field2">B</column>
      <column name="Field3">B</column>
      <column name="Field4">B</column>
    </row>
  </query>
 </validation>

Merge will leave the XML file format intact on disk but allow you to merge elements in a readable fashion:

[mouser]

Araxis is a very powerful, very good merge tool, no doubt about it.