Merge is available in two editions. The Standard Edition of Merge is intended primarily for use by individuals. The Professional Edition is better suited to commercial settings, particularly team environments.
The sole difference between the Standard and Professional editions of Merge is that only the Professional Edition contains features related to three-way comparison and merging.
The tables below summarize the major features in the two editions of Merge. A feature is not present in an edition if there is no text against the feature in that edition’s column.
File comparison and merging
| Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Benefit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| File comparison and merging Instant Overview | Yes | Yes | Learn how to compare and merge files with Merge in just a few minutes. |
| Two-way comparison and merging | Yes | Yes | Identify and reconcile insertions, removals and changes between different versions of source code, configuration files, XML documents, web pages or any other text file. |
| Three-way comparison and merging | Yes | Compare and merge changes in two updated revisions of a file with their common ancestor (or any other file). Use to reconcile conflicting changes made to a set of files by multiple developers or to merge branches in a source code control or software configuration management system. | |
| Directly open and compare text from Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), OpenDocument, PDF and RTF files | Yes | Yes | Save time by directly loading and comparing popular file formats. Alternatively, you can copy text from other applications and paste it into a Merge text comparison window. |
| Special display formatting for XML and XHTML files | Yes | Yes | See changes clearly in even the most densely formatted XML files without sacrificing the fidelity of a true textual comparison. |
| Binary file comparison | Yes | Yes | Compare binary data files and see differences at the byte level. |
| Image file comparison | Yes | Yes | Compare various types of image file and see precisely which pixels have been modified. |
| 64-bit Version Available | Yes | Yes | Compare huge files (for example, 100 MB or larger) with the 64-bit version of Merge, able to take advantage of the potentially very large amounts of memory available on 64-bit systems running a 64-bit operating system. |
| Syntax highlighting | Yes | Yes | Better comprehend a wide range of source files with built-in syntax highlighting. |
| Reports in HTML, HTML slideshow, XML and UNIX diff format | Yes | Yes | Create reports on file comparisons for archiving, distribution or export to other applications. Annotate HTML reports by adding bookmark comments. |
| Bookmarks and comments | Yes | Yes | Mark points of interest. Annotate comparisons with comments and questions, before saving as a single-file archive to be emailed to other team members for review. |
| Single-file comparison archives | Yes | Yes | Save a comparison to a single file for archival or later review, even on a different machine. Saved file comparisons include any bookmarks and associated comments that have been created, making it possible to annotate comparisons with questions and comments, before emailing them to other team members for review. |
| Comparison statistics window | Yes | Yes | See a summary of the current comparison. |
| Integrated folder comparison | Yes | Yes | Quickly and efficiently compare and merge all the files changed between different folder hierarchies. Process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages or other text files. |
| Point-and-click merging | Yes | Yes | Copy inserted, removed or changed blocks of text from one file to another (or delete them) using a single mouse click. Files can be manually merged very quickly. |
| In-place editing | Yes | Yes | Make fine-grained changes directly to the files being compared in the file comparison window itself. You do not have to open a separate editing window. |
| Linking lines | Yes | Yes | Related blocks of text are graphically linked enabling you to see at a glance how files are related. Linking lines eliminate the need for blank padding lines to keep corresponding lines adjacent to one another. |
| Synchronization links | Yes | Yes | Users may add synchronization links to tell Merge to re-synchronize the comparison at particular points. This is particularly useful in some complex comparison scenarios. |
| Side-by-side or horizontally-split display | Yes | Yes | Display files side-by-side with linking lines or vertically, with one file above the other (useful for files with long lines). |
| Optional wrapping of long lines | Yes | Yes | See all of the text within each line without having constantly to scroll from side-to-side. |
| Synchronized scrolling | Yes | Yes | Related parts of files are kept aligned in the vertical centre of the file comparison display as any file is scrolled. |
| Highlighting of changes within lines | Yes | Yes | Identify at-a-glance inserts, removals and changes made within lines down to the level of individual characters. |
| Automatic merging | Yes | Quickly and safely merge changes in two updated revisions of a file with a common ancestor (or any other file). Automatically merged text is marked with edit markers and any conflicting sections flagged for later manual processing. Automatic merging is an undoable operation, making it safe and easy to try an automatic merge speculatively to see exactly what it will do. | |
| Mark selected lines as resolved | Yes | Yes | Lines marked as resolved are dimmed (in the same way as following an automatic merge). This makes it easy to keep track of the areas of a file with which you are finished. |
| Unicode and MBCS support | Yes | Yes | Compare and merge Unicode or MBCS encoded text files (ASCII files are also supported). Critical for working with many non-English language files. For the benefit of our Japanese customers, EUC-JP encoding is also supported. |
| Input method editor (IME) support | Yes | Yes | Facilitates convenient entry and editing of text in character-rich Asia-Pacific languages. |
| Overview strips | Yes | Yes | Provides an instant visual indication of the extent of the changes between files and where those changes occur. Clicking on a change in an overview strip will jump directly to that change. |
| Conflict highlighting | Yes | After an automatic merge, any conflicting sections of the files being merged are flagged for manual processing. Commands and shortcut keys are provided to jump between conflicts. Even difficult files can thus be processed swiftly using a combination of automatic and manual merging. | |
| Edit markers | Yes | Yes | Visual history of any changes (edits or copies from another file) made to a file during the merging process. |
| Bookmarks | Yes | Yes | Makes it easy to mark and return to particular points of interest in a file. |
| Go to line | Yes | Yes | Jump directly to a line using its line number. |
| Read-only and modified indicators | Yes | Yes | Visual indication of whether a file is read-only and whether it has been modified since last saving. |
| Change summary | Yes | Yes | Indicates the number of changes between each pair of files. |
| Column/line number indicator | Yes | Yes | Identifies the current location of the cursor when editing a file. |
| Drag and drop files | Yes | Yes | Open files by dragging from Finder. |
| Printing support | Yes | Yes | Produce a hard copy (or a PDF file using Acrobat Distiller) of comparisons for reference or audit. Printed comparisons contain all the highlighting and linking lines of the on-screen presentation. To save paper, you can choose to print just the pages that contain changes. |
| Print preview | Yes | Yes | See how a comparison printout will look before committing it to paper. |
| Source code control and software configuration management integration | Yes | Yes | Integrate Merge with popular source code control and software configuration management systems such as Perforce and Subversion. |
| Automation API | Yes | Yes | Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. |
| Virtual File System (VFS) API | Yes | Yes | Enables third parties to extend Merge to browse directly, for example, configuration management or version control repositories. |
| VFS plugins for Perforce and Subversion | Yes | Yes | Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Perforce depots and Subversion repositories. |
| Command-line | Yes | Yes | Control Merge from other applications or integrate it with your workflow. |
| Flexible whitespace handling | Yes | Yes | Prevents flagging of whitespace differences when whitespace is not considered important. |
| Flexible line ending support | Yes | Yes | Allow intelligent cross-platform file sharing: work with files containing UNIX (LF), Windows (CR LF) or Mac (CR) style line endings. Choose whether to ignore differences in line endings when comparing files. |
| Display line ending characters | Yes | Yes | Optionally see individual CR and LF characters to identify differences in multiple-platform originated files. |
| Regular expression support | Yes | Yes | Ignore differences in comments, source code control keywords and other defined text patterns when comparing files. |
| Block indent/un-indent | Yes | Yes | Easily set the correct indentation level of entire blocks of text when merging text from different files. |
| Find/Replace | Yes | Yes | Search for, and optionally replace, specified text within a file or selection. |
| Customize fonts and colours | Yes | Yes | Change the style of presentation to suit your preferences or needs. |
| Customize printed headers and footers | Yes | Yes | Set the headers and footers of printed pages to suit your requirements. |
| Customize toolbars | Yes | Yes | Keep toolbars uncluttered with only the buttons that you need. |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Yes | Yes | Save time by controlling Merge using the keyboard. |
| Drag and drop text editing | Yes | Yes | Conveniently move arbitrary text between files or within a file using the mouse. |
| Jump to next/previous change | Yes | Yes | Quickly move between changes in a file using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. |
| Replace file commands | Yes | Yes | Conveniently replace the contents of one file with that of another. Useful when one revision is entirely correct and its contents need to be copied to another revision. |
| Tab strip | Yes | Yes | Switch between multiple file comparison windows with a single mouse click. |
| Toolbars | Yes | Yes | Easily access frequently used commands. |
Folder comparison and synchronization
| Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Benefit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folder comparison and synchronization Instant Overview | Yes | Yes | Learn how to compare and synchronize folders with Merge in a few minutes. |
| Two-way folder comparison | Yes | Yes | Identify file insertions, removals and changes between two folder hierarchies. Efficiently process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages or other text files. |
| Three-way folder comparison | Yes | Identify file insertions, removals and changes between two folder hierarchies and a common ancestor (or some other) folder hierarchy. Use to reconcile conflicting changes made to a set of files by multiple developers or to merge branches in a source code control or software configuration management system. | |
| VFS plugins for Perforce and Subversion | Yes | Yes | Gives Merge read-only access to files and folders located in Perforce depots and Subversion repositories. For example, use a Merge folder comparison to compare a Perforce client workspace against the depot. Alternatively, directly compare different branches (or the same branch at different points in time) within a Perforce depot. |
| Reports in HTML and XML format | Yes | Yes | Create reports on folder comparisons for archiving, distribution or export to other applications. A folder comparison report can, optionally, include file comparison reports for some or all of the files involved in the folder comparison. Thus it is possible, in one operation, to generate a report that is a complete record of all the differences in all of the files involved in a folder comparison. This is especially useful in code review and code audit situations. |
| Bookmarks and comments | Yes | Yes | Mark points of interest. Annotate comparisons with comments and questions, before saving as a single-file archive to be emailed to other team members for review. |
| Single-file comparison archives | Yes | Yes | Save a comparison to a single file for archival or later review, even on a different machine. Saved folder comparisons include any bookmarks and associated comments that have been created, making it possible to annotate comparisons with questions and comments, before emailing them to other team members for review. |
| Comparison statistics window | Yes | Yes | See a summary of the current comparison. |
| Folder synchronization | Yes | Yes | Reconcile differences between folder hierarchies either by copying files from one folder hierarchy to another (or even to a completely separate location) or by launching file comparisons for changed files. Efficiently process entire sets or branches of source code, web pages or other text files. Keep folder hierarchies on different machines (for example, a desktop and a laptop) in sync with one another. |
| Integrated file comparison | Yes | Yes | Identify and reconcile differences within corresponding files as well as between folder hierarchies by launching file comparison windows for selected files. |
| Printing support | Yes | Yes | Produce a hard copy (or a PDF file using Acrobat Distiller) of comparisons for reference or audit. Printed comparisons contain all the highlighting of the on-screen presentation. To save paper, you can choose to print just the pages that contain changes. |
| Print preview | Yes | Yes | See how a comparison printout will look before committing it to paper. |
| Visibility filters | Yes | Yes | Show only the files and folders of interest that match criteria you define. |
| Selection criteria | Yes | Yes | Select files and folders of interest that match criteria you define. Enables complex sets of files to be selected for file merging or folder synchronization. |
| Thorough comparison option | Yes | Yes | Compare corresponding files in folder hierarchies using the criteria (whitespace significance, line ending handling, etc) defined for file comparisons. |
| Byte-by-byte comparison option | Yes | Yes | Speed up folder comparisons by comparing corresponding files in folder hierarchies that are larger than a certain size using a quick and memory efficient byte-by-byte comparison algorithm. |
| Quick comparison option | Yes | Yes | Save time by performing an extremely fast folder comparison using just the sizes and timestamps of corresponding files. |
| Customize fonts and colours | Yes | Yes | Change the style of presentation to suit your preferences or needs. |
| Customize printed headers and footers | Yes | Yes | Set the headers and footers of printed pages to suit your requirements. |
| Customize toolbars | Yes | Yes | Keep toolbars uncluttered with only the buttons that you need. |
| Drag and drop folders | Yes | Yes | Select folders for comparison by dragging from Finder. |
| Toolbar | Yes | Yes | Easily access frequently used commands. |
Other features
| Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Benefit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross platform licence | Yes | Yes | A single licence enables you to use both the Windows and Mac OS X versions of Merge. |
| Comprehensive documentation | Yes | Yes | Quickly find relevant documentation. All documentation is available both as a single integrated set of online help (included with the product) and also on the Araxis website. |
| Full context sensitive help | Yes | Yes | Easily find specific help for the entire product. Context sensitive help is tightly integrated with the main documentation, allowing you to read around a particular topic. |