Merge

What is Merge?

Merge features advanced 2- and 3-way file comparison (diff), merge and folder synchronization. Broad appeal to legal and editorial professionals: Instantly identify all changes between different draft contracts or manuscripts. Open directly and compare the text of Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), OpenDocument, PDF, and RTF files. Copy text from other applications (such as Microsoft Word) and paste it directly into a text comparison.

For software engineers and web developers:

With Merge compare, understand, and combine different versions of source files. Work quickly and accurately, whether comparing individual files or reconciling entire branches of source code. Use the three-way comparison to integrate the changes you made, and those made by a colleague, with a common ancestral version. Synchronize a website with your temporary area via FTP using the provided FTP plugin.

For quality control and release managers:

With Merge compare different branches of source code to give you full confidence that you know and understand all the changes made to each file for a specific version. Compare product releases to make sure that only the expected files have been modified. Create an HTML or XML report of changes for auditing purposes.

For code reviewers and auditors:

Identify in context any changes made between two or three source code hierarchies. Create an HTML or XML report independent of your findings. Add bookmarks and comments to a file or folder comparison and save it as a single file to email to other team members for review.

Other users:

If you're working with multiple revisions of text files or need to keep multiple folder hierarchies in sync (for example, between a workstation and a laptop), Merge can save you time and reduce errors, helping you work quickly and accurately.

Text comparison and merge

Merge allows you to compare and work with different revisions of text files, such as program source code, XML and HTML files. Merging can extract and compare text from Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, PDF, and RTF files. XML files can be shown with special formatting, helping you see changes more clearly. In addition, it supports files with ASCII, MBCS and Unicode character encodings.

A color-coded side-by-side comparison makes it easy to immediately identify similarities and differences between files. Connecting lines are drawn between documents that clearly show how they are related.

Point-and-click merge helps you choose the parts of each file that you'd like to add to a final merged version by simply clicking buttons. The in-place editor with the unlimited "undo" tool allows you complete control of the merged file as you create it. The text comparison view updates dynamically as the merge progresses.

Merge shows detailed highlights of line changes. It can be configured to ignore differences in whitespace and line endings, as well as changes to lines that correspond to the specified regular expressions.

Compare text from common Office files

Extract and compare text content from Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, PDF, and RTF files. Copy text from other applications and paste it directly into a text comparison.

Binary image and comparison

Merging doesn't just compare text files. Use image comparison to compare several different types of image files and instantly see which pixels have been modified. Binary comparison allows you to identify differences in data files at a byte level.

Tridirectional comparison and automatic merge

Merge adds advanced comparison and merging of three-way visual files to the Standard Edition two-way visual file comparison and merge. This is particularly useful when more than one person is working on the same set of files.

Automatic merging allows for quick reconciliation of even the largest files. Tridirectional file comparisons can be launched directly from a three-way folder comparison, allowing for efficient integration of entire branches of source code.

Folder comparison and synchronization

Merging supports folder hierarchy comparison and synchronization, allowing you to compare and merge entire directory trees. This is ideal for detecting changes to different versions of the source code or web pages. You can even use the efficient byte comparison option to check the contents of recordable CDs or USB thumbsticks.

With support for a variety of file formats (.zip, .tar, etc.), Merge allows you to compare files as if they were folders. Compare the contents of a file to a folder to check its contents or to see which files have changed since the file was created.

Merge supports three-way folder comparison (with auto-merge capability), allowing two revisions of a folder hierarchy to be merged with their common ancestor or some other folder hierarchy. This can be especially useful when used in conjunction with a source code control or software configuration management system.

Direct access to SCM (version control) systems

In addition to being able to compare files and folders on local drives and network shares, Merge comes with plugins for Git, Mercurial, Subversion, and Perforce. In addition to providing read-only access to older versions of the files you're comparing, plug-ins make it possible to perform a folder comparison of a local Perforce or Subversion client workspace in the repository. Alternatively, different branches (or the same branch at different points in time) within a repository can be directly compared.

Merging integrates with local Time Machine volumes, so you can open any previous revisions of a file or folder. An FTP plugin allows Merge to make file and folder comparisons with direct access to files located on an FTP server.

Portable reports

File comparison reports can be created in HTML, HTML slide show, XML format, or UNIX diff. HTML reports are particularly useful for archiving and distribution. Folder comparison reports can be created in HTML or XML format.

Printing and automation

Other features include the ability to print a hard copy of file and folder comparisons and customize the behavior and appearance of the app, including fonts, colors, whether the view is split horizontally or vertically, and more.

A full AppleScript automation or API and command-line interface are included, allowing for close integration with other applications (such as source/version control systems and software configuration management or your workflow.

System Requirements:

Windows:

Windows 64 bits | Windows 8.1 | Windows 7 SP1 | Windows Server 2019 | Windows Server 2016 | Windows Server 2012 R2 | Windows Server 2012

macOS

macOS 10.14.3 Mojave | macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra | macOS 10.12.6 Sierra