Hey

If you do a lot of work with any type of text file you tend to find you end up with similar files. Although you can date them, and organise them or use subversion to keep them in check. How ever you organise your files you usually end up wondering what the difference between files and folders really is. You could look through the document but that wouldn’t be very efficient. There is a cool little application called Changes that is designed to show you the differences between text documents.

If you have ever looked into the depths of wikipedia you will notice something similar to the image below.

It shows you visually the difference between documents. The changes are highlighted in various colours. This makes seeing what you have changed very simple. You can then take various actions on what you want to do with those documents.

Changes is an application for the Mac that is designed to show you the difference between files. It is mostly designed from a programmers point of view, but it can easily be used in any circumstance. The interface is simple to use. You load in your original and modified files and then you can view the output.

You can clearly see what has changed, for both the original on the left and the modified version on the right. There are various commands at the top of the menu which you can use to view how your document looks. For example you can view the full document, the differences only. You can move around going up and down the document going to the next and previous difference. You can also merge differences of a particular section. You can also edit in the different windows to better refect your changes.

It has a host of other features which enable you to manage your websites and programs. For more information have a look through the website. This application does cost $40 which I think is a little to much, but it is a good application and it might be affordable to some people who may need such an application.