Compare Plugin

Analyzing content from various documents can be done in a number of ways and perhaps the most simple one is to have the papers one next to the other and go through the texts. Nonetheless, this can be a tedious job when dealing with consistent amounts of data, be it written passages or programming code, for example.

In case you are using Notepad++ for creating and reading such documents, a method of comparing and highlighting changes is offered by a simple plugin which you can setup and use in a few moments. Its name is Compare Plugin and once it is installed into the main application, will add a submenu in the 'Plugins' menu from where all its functions can be put to good use.

This add-on is all about side by side comparisons and offers a nice perspective of two files you select. You can even analyze a file in relation to its last save and thus detect any changes that might have occurred since that time.

The feature set of Compare Plugin also includes SVN base equivalence and a variety of commands for moving from one difference to another. You can activate the ability to align matches, so it will be more facile to look at the things which are no longer the same.

The similarity scrutiny can exclude spacing and thus make sure accidental spaces left between words or rows do not affect the query. You can enable the navigation bar and make it visible, so it will be more easy to steer through the highlighted changes.

The customizations supported by Compare Plugin pertain only to the different colors used for the various lines (added, deleted, moved, changed or blank) and to the transparency level of the marker. The conclusion is that for Notepad++ users this add-on could prove of great help, even if its feature set could receive more improvements.