Problems with HTML Tidy Rule

[magicspeller]

Hi, everyone.

I've started to use Beyond Compare to compare different versions of my HTML files. I think it will be very helpful. I was having problems comparing, however, because of varying formatting in the files.

To solve the problem, I downloaded and imported the HTML Tidy and XML Tidy rules. Now, when I try to compare two HTML files, I get the following error:

System Error. Code: 2.
They system cannot find the file specified.

I didn't know how to remove the rule (is there a way?), so I uninstalled and reinstalled Beyond Compare, ran HTML Tidy manually on two files, and tried to compare them. I got the same error.

What can I do to compare my HTML files?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Chris]

The error message means that Beyond Compare can't find the file HtmlTidy.exe.

If you installed Beyond Compare in the default location, it should be at:
C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 2\HtmlTidy\HtmlTidy.exe

If HtmlTidy is in the right spot and you still get the error message, you might need to change the HtmlTidy rule.

Select Tools|Options. Go to the Rules section. (You can also delete HtmlTidy from here if you want to get rid of it)

Select HtmlTidy and click Edit.
Go to the Conversion tab.

By default, the path to HTML tidy is specified relative to BC's working directory. The default for "Run when loading:" is:
HtmlTidy\HtmlTidy.exe -o %t %s

On some computers, relative paths don't work, so it might help to change to an absolute path:
C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 2\HtmlTidy\HtmlTidy.exe -o %t %s

Please let me know if neither of the two suggestions solve your problem.