<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic"
      id="folder-mode">
<info>
  <title type="sort">1</title>
  <link type="guide" xref="index#folder-mode"/>
  <revision docversion="1.6" status="draft"/>
  <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  <credit type="author copyright">
    <name>Kai Willadsen</name>
    <email>kai.willadsen@gmail.com</email>
    <years>2012</years>
  </credit>
</info>

<title>Getting started comparing folders</title>

<p>
<app>Meld</app> lets you compare two or three folders side-by-side. You can
start a new folder comparison by selecting the
<guiseq><gui style="menu">File</gui><gui style="menuitem">New...</gui></guiseq>
menu item, and clicking on the <gui style="tab">Directory Comparison</gui>
tab.
</p>

<p>
Your selected folders will be shown as side-by-side trees, with
differences between files in each folder highlighted. You can copy
or delete files from either folder, or compare individual text files
in more detail.
</p>



<section id="folder-mode-overview">
<title>The folder comparison view</title>

<p>
The main parts of a folder comparison are the trees showing the folders
you're comparing. You can easily <link xref="#folder-navigation">move
around</link> these comparisons to find changes that you're interested
in. When you select a file or folder, more detailed information is
given in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Pressing
<key>Enter</key> on a selected file, or double-clicking any file in the
tree will open a side-by-side <link xref="file-mode">file
comparison</link> of the files in a new tab, but this will only work
properly if they're text files!
</p>

<p>
There are bars on the left and right-hand sides of the window that show
you a simple coloured summary of the comparison results. Each file or
folder in the comparison corresponds to a small section of these bars,
though <app>Meld</app> doesn't show <em>Same</em> files so that it's
easier to see any actually important differences. You can click anywhere
on this bar to jump straight to that place in the comparison.
</p>
</section>



<section id="folder-navigation">
<title>Navigating folder comparisons</title>

<p>
You can jump between changed files (that is, any files/folders that
are <em>not</em> classified as being identical) with the
<guiseq><gui style="menu">Changes</gui><gui style="menuitem">Previous change</gui></guiseq>
and
<guiseq><gui style="menu">Changes</gui><gui style="menuitem">Next change</gui></guiseq>
menu items, or using the corresponding buttons on the toolbar.
</p>
<p>
You can use the <key>Left</key> and <key>Right</key> arrow keys to move
between the folders you're comparing. This is useful so that you can
select an individual file for copying or deletion.
</p>
</section>



<section id="folder-mode-states">
<title>States in folder comparisons</title>

<p>
Each file or folder in a tree has its own <em>state</em>, telling you
how it differed from its corresponding files/folders. The possible
states are:
</p>

<comment>
  <cite date="2012-06-03" href="mailto:kai.willadsen@gmail.com">Kai</cite>
  <p>
  The following table would be much more effective if we could style
  entries in the Appearance column to show what they would actually
  look like.
  </p>
  <p>
  Ideally we would pull these colours and other details from the
  theme/gtkrc, but even an illustration of the default would help a lot.
  </p>
</comment>


<table frame="top bottom">
  <title>Folder comparison states</title>

  <thead>
    <tr>
      <td><p>State</p></td>
      <td><p>Appearance</p></td>
      <td><p>Meaning</p></td>
    </tr>
  </thead>

  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td><p>Same</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Normal font
<!--        <file>file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        The file/folder is the same across all compared folders.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><p>Same when filtered</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Italics
<!--        <file style="font-style: italic">file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        These files are different across folders, but once
        <link xref="text-filters">text filters</link> are applied, these
        files become identical.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><p>Modified</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Blue and bold
<!--        <file style="color: #0044dd; font-weight: bold">file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        These files differ between the folders being compared.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><p>New</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Green and bold
<!--        <file style="color: #008800; font-weight: bold">file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        This file/folder exists in this folder, but not in the others.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><p>Missing</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Greyed out text with a line through the middle
<!--        <file style="color: #888888; text-decoration: line-through;">file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        This file/folder doesn't exist in this folder, but does in one
        of the others.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><p>Error</p></td>
      <td>
        <p>
        Bright red with a yellow background and bold
<!--        <file style="color: #ff0000; background-color: yellow; font-weight: bold">file.txt</file>-->
        </p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <p>
        When comparing this file, an error occurred. The most common
        error causes are file permissions (i.e., <app>Meld</app> was not
        allowed to open the file) and filename encoding errors.
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>


<comment>
  <cite date="2012-06-04" href="mailto:kai.willadsen@gmail.com">Kai</cite>
  <p>
  The emblem attached is entirely theme-dependant...
  </p>
</comment>

<p>
You can filter out files based on these states, for example, to show only
files that have been <em>Modified</em>. You can read more about this in
<link xref="file-filters#file-state-filter"/>.
</p>

<p>
Finally, the most recently modified file/folder has a small star emblem
attached to it.
</p>
</section>

</page>
