Comparing and Merging

ScriptMerge compares files and folders and applies differences to either copy of the two compared items.

Run ScriptMerge

ScriptMerge is a stand-alone application shipped with PowerShell Studio 2015.

To start ScriptMerge:

• In the Windows Start Menu, select SAPIEN Technologies, Inc\ScriptMerge.

-OR-

• On the Start page, type ScriptMerge, and press Enter.

-OR-

1. In PowerShell Studio, click Tools.
2. In the File Browser, click Compare Files.

Compare Files

ScriptMerge compares files and highlights the differences.

To compare files:

1. Click File, Compare files
2. In the top panes, navigate to the directory. In the bottom panes, navigate to the files.
3. Click Compare Files.

When you first open the files, ScriptMerge displays the differences as gray, light yellow and dark yellow colored lines.

The light yellow indicates words that have changed. The dark yellow indicates a line that contains a change. The dark gray lines indicate a line that was deleted. To see it in action, change a line and save it. Then you will see the changes reflected in the file comparison.

To step through the changes:

• Click Home and, in the Differences section, click Next and Previous.

The current difference is highlighted in different shades of red.

To merge the changes:

• Click Home and, in the Merge section, click Right or Left.

Compare Folders

There's also a lot of power in comparing folders. You might have two folders with the same file names and you want to see which one you should be using. ScriptMerge makes that very simple.

To compare folders:

• Click File, Compare folders
• Select the folders, and then click Compare Folders.

ScriptMerge compares the files in each folder and their contents. The results show which folders have files in both locations, or if the folders have files in only one.

If a file exists in both locations but is different, then it's marked with a red icon.

If the files are identical in both locations you'll see the blue whole page icon.

The icons reflect the folder position; left page icons and right page icons.

To replace a file in one folder with the file in the other folder:

• Click Home and, in the Merge section, click Right or Left.

-OR-

• Right-click the file and click Copy (Left to Right or Right to Left).

Change Options

You can change some options in ScriptMerge to suit your needs.

To change ScriptMerge options:

• Click File, Settings.

You can change the highlight colors for the comparisons and set compare options.

Navigating Between Differences

The block section of the ribbon provides buttons to help you move between differences in a file.

• Next (Ctrl + Down)
  Moves forward to the next difference.
• Previous (Ctrl + Up)
  Moves back to the previous difference.
• First (Ctrl + H)
  Moves to the first difference.
• Last (Ctrl + E)
  Moves to the last difference.
• Current (Ctrl + Enter)
  Scrolls the code window to the current difference.
• Highlight Diff
  Adds extra emphasis to the changed elements in code files.

Reconciling Differences

The merge section of the ribbon provides buttons to help you copy code from one file to another.

• Right (Ctrl + Right)
  Copies content from the left hand file to the right hand file.
• Left (Ctrl + Left)
  Copies content from the right hand file to the left hand file.
• Right, Next Diff
  Copies content from the left hand file to the right hand file and navigate to the next difference.
• Left, Next Diff
  Copies content from the right hand file to the left hand file and navigate to the next difference.
• All Right
  Copies all differences from the left hand file to the right hand file.
• All Left
  Copies all differences from the right hand file to the left hand file.