Araxis Merge Pro 2016.4702 - Advanced 2 & 3-way file comparison

Araxis Merge is the two- and three-way visual file comparison/merging and folder synchronization application. Use it to compare, understand and combine different versions of source code, Web pages and other text files, or even text copied and pasted from another application (e.g., Pages or Microsoft Word). Merge integrates with Time Machine, so you can compare older versions of files.

Merge is a compelling choice for software developers, lawyers, product release managers, Web designers and other professionals who work with multiple revisions of text files, including ASCII, MBCS and Unicode files. Merge integrates with many version control (VC) and software configuration management (SCM) systems (e.g. Subversion and Perforce) that allow a third-party comparison/merging tool to be specified.

For legal professionals: instantly identify every change by copying text from different contract drafts being edited in another application (such as Microsoft Word) and pasting it directly into a file comparison window. Many more features.

Versions for OS X 10.9, 10.10, and 10.11 are available here.

What’s New

Version 2016.4702:Note: Now requires OS X 10.11 or later.

Enhancements

Merge is fully supported and tested on OS X El Capitan.

Many new toolbar buttons have been added, providing quick access to numerous features. The toolbar now has most of the items from the Merge for Windows ribbon, grouped in a similar, logical way. In addition, the toolbar icons are based on those used in Merge for Windows, but drawn to conform to the native OS X style. These changes make it much more comfortable to switch between Merge on the two platforms. (Any unwanted toolbar items can be hidden by customizing the toolbar.)

The main application menu bar and its submenus have been completely re-worked to conform broadly to the logical layout of the Merge for Windows ribbon/menu, while still adhering to native OS X conventions. As well as making Merge easier to use for new users, this should also improve efficiency for those using Merge across platforms.

Merge now uses the native OS X style for toolbar buttons.

Within comparisons, Merge for OS X now uses exactly the same modern-style, high-resolution artwork for bookmarks, indicators, merging and other buttons, etc. as Merge for Windows.

Informational and warning messages within comparison panes are drawn in a clean, modern style.

The tab strip has been completely redesigned, both to improve its utility, and to be appropriate for a modern OS X application.

By default, the toolbar shows text labels.

The Save Modified Files sheet has been revised to show only modified files. In addition, when modified files are saved, they are removed from the list.

A new Action>Select Rows>Invert Selection menu command (and corresponding toolbar item) has been added.

Various quick-access menu items have been added to the Preferences toolbar button to enable certain preferences to be quickly changed. For example, line-ending visibility may be quickly toggled.

The layout, content and behaviour of the Find dialog has been improved.

A Recompare As toolbar button has been added for image comparisons.

Folder comparisons no longer show a Changed column for removed/inserted files. This brings Merge for OS X into line with its Windows counterpart, and avoids the potential for confusion over the operation of the Actions>Select Rows>Select Changed command.

In a folder comparison, the Launch Comparisons toolbar button and Action>Launch Comparisons for Selected Rows menu item are only enabled when comparable items are selected.

The Select Changed, Select Inserted, and Select Removed items on the Select Rows toolbar button menu, and corresponding items on the Actions>Select Rows menu, only enable if corresponding items exist in the folder comparison.

The appearance of the file comparison omitted-lines indicator has been improved.

The default window width when Merge first starts has been increased to accommodate the additional toolbar buttons.

A note on the Application>Versions preference tab has been reworded to indicate that it only applies to OS X Mavericks.

Minor layout improvements have been made to various preference pages.

Several items on the Application>General preference pane have been reworded for clarity.

The documentation has been extensively revised to reflect the new menu layout, toolbar items, and other user interface changes.

The instant overview screenshots (both file and folder comparison) in the documentation have been upgraded to the new, interactive style.

All the screenshots in the English and Japanese documentation have been retaken to show the revised user interface.

The integration instructions for IntelliJ IDEA have been updated.

The documentation for the Cmd+Shift+? keyboard shortcut has been improved.

Merge has been upgraded to use use the Java Runtime Environment version 8, instead of version 7.

Merge now uses the regular expression support provided by standard C++ libraries. The dependency on the Boost library has therefore been removed.

The Merge major version has been updated to 2016, to reflect the year of release.

Bugs Fixed

Leaving the Search size field empty in a binary comparison no longer causes an error.

The pointer becomes an arrow when hovering over an inline merging button and no longer flickers.

It is now possible to replace found text with an empty string. Previously, this only worked erratically.

The Break lines at word boundaries preference works when Show whitespace characters is enabled.

The font and background colours of file comparisons may now be changed in the Japanese localization of Merge.

Pressing Option+Tab while editing a pane of a text comparison will always now insert a literal tab character.

The File>Save As>Save Comparison As… menu command works correctly when the Finder preference Show all filename extensions is unchecked.

The keyboard shortcut for the File>Set Character Encoding menu command is now shown.

Merge no longer uses the Apple-reserved keyboard shortcut Shift+Cmd+3.

The documented Option+Cmd+W keyboard shortcut (to close all open windows) now works.

The system-version-specific keyboard shortcut Option+Cmd+T has been removed from the documentation.

Binary comparisons no longer display with excessive spacing for certain combinations of formats and display options.

Items on binary and image comparison control strips are sized and positioned consistently.

Control positioning on text and folder comparisons is now the same for the Japanese localization as it is for the English.

In a folder comparison, the file path text field width adjusts appropriately when changing the visibility state of the Changes column.

Items on the Edit>Find menu are no longer inappropriately enabled for binary and image comparisons.

The user interface has been update to use the word ‘Recompare’ consistently, rather than a mixture of ‘Re-compare’ and ‘Recompare’.

The Edit>Find>Go to Line… menu item has been disabled for folder comparisons.

The Preferences>Text Comparisons>Editing>Tab key indents/unindents instead of cycling input focus preference has been renamed to Tab key inserts tab character instead of cycling focus. This better indicates its behaviour, and is more consistent with the corresponding option in Merge for Windows.

Various instances of the (non-dictionary) word ‘unindent’ in the user interface and documentation have been changed to ‘un-indent’.

The folder comparison context menu Re-Test Selected Rows item has been renamed to Retest Selected Rows for consistency with the rest of the user interface.