Hello,
Thanks for the info. I'll start with how BC2 functioned:
BC2 shipped with 2 main viewers: Folder Viewer and File Viewer. However, File Viewer only supported text and couldn't open other file types. Once you launched the File Viewer, you could select different Rules (INI, Java, Everything Else). You couldn't pick the Rule ahead of time using the graphical interface, but could use the Rules toolbar button, which looked like a Referee, to switch to a different Rule after the files are opened. The global Options dialog had a Rules section which controlled which Rule was picked by default; the topmost matching extension.
BC2 also had additional downloads on its download page to install an MP3 Viewer, Picture Viewer, Hex Viewer, Data Viewer, etc.
BC3 behaves very similarly to this. We renamed Viewer to Compare, and renamed the File Viewer to Text Compare since it only handles text files anyway. Rules became Formats and Session Settings, since we pulled out Importance from the Rule and made it a Session Setting. The basic loading is still very similar: you would open the Text Compare, then use the Format toolbar dropdown to switch the Format. We also included all the plug-ins (MP3, Picture, Hex, etc) by default, instead of making users download them separately.
All major versions of Beyond Compare can be installed side by side on Windows if you would like to use different versions for different tasks, or use an older version while still learning the in's and out's of a newer version. An older license never expires, and we still host the latest release of each major version on our website.
Format auto-naming was pretty poor in previous versions, but we've patched that up to have better auto-names in the latest BC4 release; it'll use your extension to help create an auto-name instead of "New Text Format". You can also edit any of these names in the Tools menu -> File Formats list to give them custom, easily identifiable names.
In the global Tools menu -> File Formats dialog, the extra Everything Else are for each format type. Please note that the Icon is very important to the identification: the White paper is a Text format, the purple graph is a Table format, the 0110 is the Hex format, and the mountains are the Picture format. They are the 4 default formats for these compare types. When you are in a Text Compare session, the Format toolbar button dropdown will *only* show Text formats, so you'll only see one Everything Else at the bottom of that list.
We don't have a method to pick the format used in a child compare on-the-fly. The quickest method here is to launch the files using the Text Compare, let it pick the default format, and then switch using the Toolbar. However, if you know certain files need certain formats, we do have some customization that can help, such as more complex File Format extension masks, or you can use a Folder Compare's Session menu, Session Settings, Misc tab to limit the formats that this specific folder will use. Unchecked formats here are disabled, and won't be used when you double click a file in this specific Folder Compare session. This session can then be saved for future use.
Thanks for the info. I'll start with how BC2 functioned:
BC2 shipped with 2 main viewers: Folder Viewer and File Viewer. However, File Viewer only supported text and couldn't open other file types. Once you launched the File Viewer, you could select different Rules (INI, Java, Everything Else). You couldn't pick the Rule ahead of time using the graphical interface, but could use the Rules toolbar button, which looked like a Referee, to switch to a different Rule after the files are opened. The global Options dialog had a Rules section which controlled which Rule was picked by default; the topmost matching extension.
BC2 also had additional downloads on its download page to install an MP3 Viewer, Picture Viewer, Hex Viewer, Data Viewer, etc.
BC3 behaves very similarly to this. We renamed Viewer to Compare, and renamed the File Viewer to Text Compare since it only handles text files anyway. Rules became Formats and Session Settings, since we pulled out Importance from the Rule and made it a Session Setting. The basic loading is still very similar: you would open the Text Compare, then use the Format toolbar dropdown to switch the Format. We also included all the plug-ins (MP3, Picture, Hex, etc) by default, instead of making users download them separately.
All major versions of Beyond Compare can be installed side by side on Windows if you would like to use different versions for different tasks, or use an older version while still learning the in's and out's of a newer version. An older license never expires, and we still host the latest release of each major version on our website.
Format auto-naming was pretty poor in previous versions, but we've patched that up to have better auto-names in the latest BC4 release; it'll use your extension to help create an auto-name instead of "New Text Format". You can also edit any of these names in the Tools menu -> File Formats list to give them custom, easily identifiable names.
In the global Tools menu -> File Formats dialog, the extra Everything Else are for each format type. Please note that the Icon is very important to the identification: the White paper is a Text format, the purple graph is a Table format, the 0110 is the Hex format, and the mountains are the Picture format. They are the 4 default formats for these compare types. When you are in a Text Compare session, the Format toolbar button dropdown will *only* show Text formats, so you'll only see one Everything Else at the bottom of that list.
We don't have a method to pick the format used in a child compare on-the-fly. The quickest method here is to launch the files using the Text Compare, let it pick the default format, and then switch using the Toolbar. However, if you know certain files need certain formats, we do have some customization that can help, such as more complex File Format extension masks, or you can use a Folder Compare's Session menu, Session Settings, Misc tab to limit the formats that this specific folder will use. Unchecked formats here are disabled, and won't be used when you double click a file in this specific Folder Compare session. This session can then be saved for future use.
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