WinMerge Helps You Compare And Merge Files

Having the need to compare two files directly is not something just for server folk. Just recently, a friend of mine had two files he -had- to find the differences between in order to continue to do what he was working on, and it’s too bad I didn’t know of WinMerge at the time. Lifehacker takes a look at this program which can save you lots of time and probably headaches. For the Linux user, you can use similar tools, such as Diff (with Kdiff as a frontend).

When several people are updating and making copies of the same files, multiple versions easily blossom out of control. Figuring out what’s changed, what hasn’t and merging it all back together can be a huge pain in the ass, but it doesn’t have to be. Say your kids downloaded images from the digital camera repeatedly to folders all over your hard drive. You and your co-worker lost track of who made the latest changes to that PowerPoint presentation. You want to merge the changes between two updated files into one. Fear not. The free, open source, previously-mentioned WinMerge is a powerful utility that can help coders and civilians alike merge and compare data on their hard drives.

Source: Lifehacker