Specifying a comparison tool in Dreamweaver

You must install a third-party file comparison tool on your system to compare files from Dreamweaver. For more information on file comparison tools, see the Macromedia website at www.macromedia.com/go/dw8_compare_util.

After you have installed a file comparison tool, you must specify it in Dreamweaver, as outlined in this section.

To specify a file comparison tool:

1. Install the file comparison tool on the same system as Dreamweaver.
2. In Dreamweaver, open the Preferences dialog box by selecting Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Dreamweaver > Preferences (Macintosh), and then select the File Compare category.
3. In Windows, click the Browse button and select the application that compares files.
4. On the Macintosh, click the Browse button and select the tool or script that launches the file comparison tool from the command line, not the actual comparison tool itself.

   Launch tools or scripts are typically located in the usr/bin folder on your Macintosh. For example, if you want to use FileMerge, browse to usr/bin and select opendiff, which is the tool that launches FileMerge.

   The following table lists common file comparison tools for the Macintosh and the location of their launch tools or scripts on your hard disk:

   If you use	Select the following file
   FileMerge	usr/bin/opendiff
   BBEdit	usr/bin/bbdiff
   TextWrangler	usr/bin/twdiff

   NOTE

   The usr folder is normally hidden in Finder. However, you can access it with the Browse button in Dreamweaver.

Related topics

• Comparing two files
• Comparing before putting files
• Comparing when synchronizing files