Ultra compare

[Darwin]

I came back to the review last night to see how Ultra Compare had fared because I noticed that the latest pro version (4.2) features 3 way-comparison and merge ... It's not really mentioned in the review, beyond a mention in the "other programs" section. I presume that version 4.2 is probably at least one version newer than the one that would have been available in the fall of 2005 and wonder how it compares to Beyond Compare 2, which came out tops in the review. Speaking of 3 way comparisons and Beyond Compare, BC 3 is *possibly* going to be released as a public beta in the summer but it's much awaited 3 way comparison functionality will be reserved for a pro version. When I purchased BC 2 in the spring of 2005, BC 3 was supposed to be just around the corner and was promised as a free upgrade but I now note that upgrades will only be free for users who purchased within a year of its release. C'est la vie. I can hardly complain having had excellent use of it for the past two years!

[mwb1100]

You might also want to look at p4merge from Perforce (http://www.perforce....nloads/ntx86_64.html).  It's in the P4V installer.  Note that you don't have install any of the other Perforce stuff if you're not interested in the version control - p4merge works fine stand-alone.  There's no cost - Perforce only charges for user licenses for use of their server-based software (and even then a limited license for up to 2 users is free).

Another contender is TortoiseMerge, an open source comparison utility bundled with TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.t...g/TortoiseMerge.html).  Again, you don't need to use or install Subversion to use the TortoiseMerge tool.

I use Beyond Compare for folder diffs or diffing files from explorer, but I use p4merge for diffing from my development tools (only because I'm too lazy to reconfig them to use BC2)

[Darwin]

Update (thought I'd updated this back in April!) - as it happens Ultra Compare Pro is a nice app but limited to comparing text files, so can't be used to compare things like xls files, which is functionality that requre.

Note that BC3 has STILL to be released as a public beta - getting on for three years now...

[Lindaxox]

I was not able to find any file comparison tool that can properly compare Excel Spreadsheets and Winword documents.
Anybody can recommend one?
Thanks

[mouser]

i remember a Word compare tool but dont remember the name.. there should be something for excel files too.. looking forward to what members recommend.

[cranioscopical]

Beyond Compare 3.x says it does Word and Excel.

http://www.scooterso...hp?zz=kb_moreformats

[Darwin]

I used a SUPER expensive program when I was doing my PhD (the academic price for one year was @$100). It worked brilliantly - displayed pdfs, xls, doc, etc with formatting - but I can't remember the name, off-hand. Will check around and post back.

EDIT: as soon as I hit "post" I remembered: Diff Doc.

[Darwin]

Cripes! I just dug around to find pricing (it's well hidden) a icense with no upgrade support is $399.95. You have pay $129.95 a year for upgrade protection, so the license and a year's upgrade protection is gong to run you $530 and $130 per year thereafter. I'm in the wrong business...

I can't recommend Diff Doc based on their upgrade policy alone - add in the buy-in price and I'm embarrassed to have mentioned it