Using Compare It! with File Manager

File Name AutoComplete

Compare It! has a feature that simplifies its usage from file manager (FM). You can pass a directory name as the second parameter instead of passing the full name of the second file. This allows you to call Compare It! from file manager without having to find and select the target file in a long directory listing.

Syntax: wincmp3.exe d:\dir\dir2\dir3\file.ext e:\archive\month

Compare It! will try to find the second file in the next sequence:

e:\archive\month\file.ext
e:\archive\month\dir3\file.ext
e:\archive\month\dir2\dir3\file.ext
e:\archive\month\dir\dir2\dir3\file.ext

If file.ext is not found anywhere, Compare It! will let you know that it could not find the target file.

How Can I Use It?

You can get most of Compare It! and your file manager, if your file manager supports running external tools with parameters. In this case, you can define one command to compare files with the same file names, and another one to compare files using the AutoComplete feature. Moreover, Compare It! has two different icons you can use in your Compare It! for these commands. Here is an example of the configuration for Windows Commander:

Compare files with the same file name: %p%n %t

Compare files with different names: %p%n %t%m

where:

%p is the active panel path
%t is the passive panel path
%n is the current file name
%m is the file name in inactive file name.

Using Compare It! From Windows Explorer

If you are using Windows Explorer, you can create a shortcut to Compare It! in your SendTo catalog. Now you can select two files, right-click and choose Send To > Compare It! to compare the selected files using Compare It!
You can also select one file, right-click and choose Send To > Compare It! and Compare It! will ask you to select the second file.

Shortcuts in the SendTo folder are used to pass parameters to often-used applications directly from Windows Explorer. Depending on your Windows operating system, you can find this folder here:
Windows XP: .\Documents and Settings\Administrator\SendTo
Windows NT: .\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator\SendTo
Windows 95: .\Windows\SendTo

You can send files to Compare It! with SendTo command even one by one. Compare It! will understand such doubled call and compare files.

Using Compare It! with Total Commander

On our web site you will find detailed article on effective usage of Compare It! with TotalCommander: http://www.grigsoft.com/art_totcmd.htm

Using Compare It! with FAR

FAR manager can invoke external application from it's User's menu, available on F2 key. You can use this command line to configure comparison of selected files in active and passive panels: wincmp3.exe !.! !#!\!.!