Comparing Files

Compare It! lets you use different methods to select files to compare:

Command line
Simply pass 2 file names as parameters and Compare It! will open them.
See also: File Name AutoComplete
If run without parameters, Compare It! allows you to select source and target files using the Open File dialog.
You can also select files at any time by pressing CTRL + O.
Drop files into the Compare It! application window to compare them: one-by-one or both files at once.
Using the Select Files mode, accessible by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + O
You can choose a recently compared file pair by choosing File > Recent and selecting the file pair.

As soon as you have selected the files to compare, Compare It! will compare the files and show the results. Comparison should not last very long, unless your files are very large. As an example, a comparison of 2 registry exports of 5 MB each should not take more than 10 seconds.

Viewing Differences

After the compare process is complete, the two compared files appear in the source and target panes. The differences are highlighted in different colors.

See Keyboard Shortcuts and Toolbar Buttons for details about how to perform actions in Compare It! using keyboard shortcuts and toolbar buttons.