Compare two orphan files

[RichardBlake]

Viewing a folder compare, I select an orphan file from left and right folders - I suspect they are identical or similar, but names differ due to system actions in naming them - then do a Compare Contents. Log shows 'Successfully compared 2 items.' I try it again, this time checking
[x] Show results dialog. Dialog shows results: '1 left orphan files 1 right orphan files'
Still not the detail I need. I can choose Text/Hex compare and get (more than) the detail I need,
but wish that BC3 would compare (in the appropriate manner depending on file type) any pair of files selected, including orphans or even two files in the same (left or right) pane and show the results in the log record: Successfully compared 2 items - files are identical.
or ... - files are different.

[Chris]

Hi Richard,

To compare two files that don't have the same name/path in the Folder Compare, select them, then use the Actions > Quick Compare command.

[snidely.too]

I read the request as being for more clarity in the results display ... the compare was successful, but did the files match or not?

/dps

[Chris]

This is really about selection. "Actions > Compare Contents" in BC3 will only compare files that have the same name and path relative to the base folder (they must be aligned with each other).

In Richard's example, he wanted to compare two files that were not aligned with each other. Compare Contents won't work for this because it won't compare files that aren't aligned. The Quick Compare command compares only a pair of files, and it doesn't matter if they are aligned or not. This is why Quick Compare is the correct command for the scenario Richard describes.

[aquinas]

I was going to write a new post, asking for what I see as a feature request, but a lot of the content Chris wrote above applies to my variation of the original post.

In my scenario, I'm lazy: in the folder compare view, I select a file in each pane, where they are often named differently, but almost similar in content (>99.5%). After selecting the 2nd file, I immediately right-click for 2 reasons: less mouse travel vs going up to the menubar, and (perhaps more importantly), the context menu contains only the valid actions I can perform. One of those is "Compare Contents" - hmmmm, sound exactly what I want, so I select it and at the resulting dialog, have "Binary comparison" selected as that's what I often do. Click [Start] and get (basically) a "hey your files cannot be compared because they're different file names" result.

My "work-around" is to, instead of the right-click, choose from the menubar: Actions -> Open With -> Hex Compare. But I often forget that this is what I need to do. (Okay, so not only am I lazy, but forgetful (even thought I use BC 3-5+ times per week.)

So what I'd like for the "Compare Contents" right-click scenario, where either the two file names are different, and/or their file sizes are different, and "Binary comparison" is checked, is . . .
to open a "Hex Compare" (or add Hex Compare as an option on "Compare Contents" dialog, or add Hex Compare to context menu).

[Aaron]

Hello Aquinas,

The issue here is that we need a manual method to initiate a content comparison on a selection for aligned content, and for non-aligned content.

This stems from our Session Settings, which can be configured to run a Content Comparison on all aligned content. The Compare Contents command triggers this same behavior on aligned content, but allows the user to perform the scan on a subset of data, such as a specific folder or selection of files.

For your scenario, you need another command to initiate the content scan on a pair of unaligned, selected files. We hook into Quick Compare, which is the same set of settings used when using the Windows Shell Extension from Windows Explorer to select any two files.

Does the confusion come from our current naming scheme?