Beyond Compare

Software comparison always saves you valuable time. Scooter Software-developed Beyond Compare saves you even more time due to its many comparison features and more.

Downloading the program shouldn't take too long. The package weighs in at about 5 Mb, which isn't very much. The installation process features a straightforward wizard which requires you to specify just a destination path.

Using Beyond Compare is no challenging task. You can find your way around the interface without any difficulties. All comparison features can be accessed from a list of buttons from the left side of the main window. Just click one of them and the next thing you'll notice is that the interface changes to a two part window which allows for a side by side comparison. If you browse for files or folders in each one of the two halves of the window, the program will automatically show you the differences, color coded for a better view. For example, if you compare two folders, the files or the sub folders contained in one of them will be colored blue or any other color you wish to choose from the program's main settings panel. Switching to view types that show just the differences or the same content can be done fast via buttons from the toolbar. This doesn't feature too many buttons. Most of the options can be found in the top menus.

This is how you use Beyond Compare. The same goes for the other comparison types. You can also compare text, data, hex, MP3, images, registry and file versions. All can be accessed without the need to look around the interface. On the program's home window, next to the comparison buttons, you'll also find a tree like navigation pane with settings for each individual compare type. With these options and others, accessed from the tools menu, it's safe to say that Beyond Compare makes file or folder comparison very flexible.

You can also find a folder synchronization and text merge features, also accessed from the main window. Folder synchronization involves just targeting two folders, choosing to update both, update or mirror in a certain direction and hitting the large Sync Now button, found in the center of the window. Text merging looks a bit more complex, but if you know what you want to do, you'll have no trouble here either.