Copyright: Famtech Information Services Ltd, Toronto, Canada.


Help Contents

The Contents lists Help topics available for QuickSpot. Use the scroll bar to see entries not currently visible in the Help window.

To learn how to use Help, press F1 or choose Using Help from the Help menu

Topics:

What is QuickSpot

How you can use QuickSpot

QuickTour

File-scanning Tips

File-Comparison Examples

File-editing Tips

Directory-scanning Tips

Directory-Comparison Examples

Directory-editing Tips

Menu

Support


 What is QuickSpot ?

QuickSpot is a utility that compares 2 text-files and highlights the differences found between them. It reports the differences on a line by line basis and highlights the lines that are not in synch. Discrepancies can be viewed or printed.

In QuickSpot, you can set unique comparison-criteria that find the needle in the haystack! You can compare specific lines or all lines, narrow down the comparison across specific positions per line, and filter out source-code comments. You can also skip a number of lines repeatedly, or compare different ranges in the files.

New with version 3: Compare any 2 directory-trees.

File- and Directory-editing features allow a quick fix of the discrepancies found by QuickSpot. In addition, there is a find/replace option and support for copying/merging text between the 2 files; files can also be saved and printed. In the directory-section, files can be deleted, renamed, moved or copied.

The graphical display has been improved substantially. It now includes a toolbar, and there are various options how to view the 2 files and the discrepancies. All color settings can be changed at any time.

QuickSpot is still a 16-bit application and therefore runs smoothly on all current Windows versions; Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5 and 4.


How you can use QuickSpot
 How can you use QuickSpot

Unlimited possibilities ! Just a few suggestions:

You have copied a file, made changes to the copy, then forgot about them. Now suddenly, you should re-apply these changes to a third file.

You have a bunch of .INI or .BAT files across your network and are supposed to clean up and make sure all files are on the latest version in your environment.

... in other words, it's really about version-control. But also consider this:

Since Webpage (.HTML)-Files are nothing more than text-files, web-masters can use this utility to keep track of the changes between different versions of their web-pages.

Many script-files or macros are plain text-files. You may have 2 versions of a script and need to find the difference between them.

Mainframe users can download reports to ASCII-Files and compare them with QuickSpot. QuickSpot's in-built capability to skip a number of lines on every page (defined as report-headers) and to focus the scan across certain positions per line only makes it truly unique. It's a low-cost alternative for comparison of parallel tests-results, Y2K tests, etc.

Developers who want to compare different versions of their source-files but are unwilling to spend thousand of hard-earned bucks for some fancy "enterprise" solutions can use QuickSpot as a low-cost alternative to keep things on track. If you can download your source-code to an ASCII/Text-File (for most development packages, it's a piece of cake), then you're ok.

And, we're sure, there are many, many more uses for it !


 Quick Tour

Start the program. Make sure the File tab at the bottom is active (green color). Open a file under File 1, then another (similar) one under File 2. Use the 2 leftmost buttons on the toolbar to do that. As soon as QuickSpot realizes that 2 files are currently loaded, it will immediately compare them. You see the results of the compare in the message-area in the lower part of the window.

Now, select Options, then Scan Files. The Scan-window will pop up, presenting you with a number of scanning options. Get familiar with them to really maximize the potential of Quick Scan (see File-scanning Tips for details).

You can edit the file-contents of either file. Use the QuickSpot editing features to deal with a discrepancy on the spot that QuickSpot has found. See File-editing Tips. For full-blown editing, it's probably easier to use Notepad (select Options, then Edit File (1 or 2) and Notepad will pop up) or the editor of your choice. If you make changes to the files outside QuickSpot, you must reload the files in QuickSpot to see the latest version.

Now switch to the Directory tab. Open a Directory Tree (meaning a directory plus all its files and all its sub-directories), then a second (similar) one. Use the 2 leftmost buttons on the toolbar to do that. Again, once 2 directory trees are loaded, QuickSpot will compare them right away. Spend a few minutes going through the Directory-scanning Tips to find out how to best set the options to get meaningful results from a directory compare.

Note that in the demo-version, comparison stops after 10 lines. In the registered version, everything that you have loaded into QuickSpot will be compared.

Finally, take a quick look at menu-options View, Preferences, and Colors. In the preferences-window you can define how you want the graphical display to appear, whether QuickSpot at startup should display the file- or directory-tab, how QuickSpot should respond when you double-click on a file in the directory-tree listing; how it should respond to a file being dragged, and if it should automatically compare 2 files/directories once they are loaded. If you work with large files you may want to disable this and select compare on request only. This means that QuickSpot will load 2 files/directories but will not compare them right away, rather will do this only once you have set the comparison-criteria in the File-scan window or directory-scan window and clicked SCAN. To safe your settings permanently, click "Set as Default". QuickSpot will use these settings every time until you change them again.

In the colors-window, you can override all of the colors that QuickSpot uses by default to highlight currently visible lines. The colors you select will be saved permanently; QuickSpot will use them every time until you change them again.


 File-scanning Tips

"Scanning" here means setting the comparison criteria and then have QuickSpot compare the two loaded files applying these criteria.

A plain normal scan, as carried out by QuickSpot in default mode as soon as you load up 2 files, compares line by line and lets you know which ones don't match. That's something to start with, but in many cases, it is not sophisticated enough to give you the results you really want from a file-comparison. Here is where QuickSpot's provides you with useful options to narrow down a search to the point where only those discrepancies you're after will appear. Below is a detailed explanation of each feature:

Scan Lines

ALL selects everything from both files. This options DOES NOT WORK in the demo-version of the software.

BLOCKS allow you to select a range of lines for comparisons. The ranges for the 2 files can be different; for example, you can compare line 1 in File 1 with line 7 in File 2, line 2 in File 1 with line 8 in File 2, and so on. You could even compare 2 blocks of the same file by loading the same file twice and then select the lines from different areas of the file. In this case, be careful when you save, refer to Menu File-Save.

To select a range of lines to be compared, enter a number for a from-line and a to-line range for File 1, then a from-line for File 2. QuickSpot will calculate the to-line for File 2. In the demo-version, however, this has been disabled. Comparison is limited to the first 10 lines of each file.

Scan Positions

Useful if you have a fixed-format file and you're only interested in comparing a certain area per line across the file. For instance, you may not be interested in what's in every line beyond position 80 because it's just comments. So just limit the scan to cover positions 1 - 80 and QuickSpot will only report those lines out of synch where there really is a discrepancy in positions 1 - 80.

Report Header - No Comparison

You may want to exclude certain lines from comparison without being able to just number the lines as in the "Scan Lines" feature. For example, a mainframe-user can download 2 financial reports, one covering the year 1999, the other covering the year 2000. The report may be 66 lines per page, with 10 lines per page being the report header. You are interested in comparing all or part of the 56 lines below the report-header, but it would be annoying to compare the report-header-lines 1 to 10 because there would be discrepancies like the time when they were printed on every page, inflating the number of lines reported to be out of synch.

In such a cause, just tell QuickSpot to exclude lines 1 to 10 in a 66-page report and it will know what to do. Lines thus skipped from the search will be marked with a different color, so you can easily see how your selection influenced the QuickSpot compare.

The remaining 2 fields in this section provide additional flexibility: The line-numbers 1, 10 and 66 entered in the first 3 fields as in the example above could either refer to File 1 or File 2. Just select the appropriate file from the drop-down box. The "Skip in both" can be ticked (default) or not. Ticked means that if, say, 10 lines are skipped in the "Refer-to-File", the adjacent 10 lines of the other file will also be skipped. Not ticked means that even if 10 lines are skipped in the "Refer-to-File", none are skipped in the adjacent file.

Click here for File-Comparison Examples.

Comments - No Comparison

Enter one or more characters (no leading spaces !) to instruct QuickSpot to stop comparing the lines once it encounters this character(s) in the line-content.

Many program-source files have delimiters that indicate where the code ends and the comments start on one and the same line. This scan-option allows you to split source-code that you want to compare from comments that you don't want to compare.

Settings

Match Case: To instruct how to compare text. If Match Case is ticked, these 2 lines as an example will be considered a no-match:

Has anyONE SEEn My cAPSLOCK ?

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY CAPSLOCK ?

If not ticked (the default), the above 2 lines will be regarded as identical.

Note that this setting also applies to any comment-character set. If ticked and the comment has been entered as "REM", then a "rem" encountered in the line-content will NOT be considered a comment and will it will be included in the comparison. Again, if not ticked, the "rem" will match the "REM" and therefore comparison of the line will stop at this point.

Save these Settings: Keep the data you entered into this window for future comparisons. Will only be kept active until you close the files.

Ignore Leading Blanks: Instructs QuickSpot to ignore any blanks or tabs from the beginning of a line until the first character is encountered. If this option is ticked, the 2 lines below will be regarded as identical:

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY CAPSLOCK ?

     HAS ANYONE SEEN MY CAPSLOCK ?

If not ticked (the default), these 2 lines will not match and will be highlighted.

Ignore Trailing Blanks: Instructs QuickSpot to ignore any blanks or tabs from the last character of a line to the end of a line. By default, this is set on.


 Directory-scanning Tips

"Scanning" here means setting the comparison criteria and then have QuickSpot compare the two loaded directories applying these criteria.

A plain normal scan, as carried out by QuickSpot in default mode as soon as you load up 2 directory-trees, compares file by file and lets you know which ones don't exist in both. But there are a number of options to fine-tune this comparison; all features are explained below.

In the demo-version, comparison is limited to 10 lines.

Include in Load:

Here you select which files QuickSpot should load and compare.

Normal: All files but NOT files that are read-only, hidden or system.

Read-only: Files whose read-only attribute is set on.

Hidden: Files whose hidden attribute is set on.

System: Files whose system attribute is set on.

Note: For a file to be included all attributes that apply to it must be selected. For example, if a file's read-only and hidden attributes are both set on it will only be selected if BOTH read-only and hidden are ticked on the scan-window.

Mark as Difference:

Here you can select what differences QuickSpot should highlight. For instance, if you don't care about the files' date, do not tick this option. Then QuickSpot will not highlight files even if their dates are different.

File Name: If not ticked, a line by line comparison will occur, that means the first file of directory one will be compared with the first file of directory 2, the second file of directory 1 with the second file of directory 2, and so on. Files appear in alphabetical order. If directory 2 contains, for example, 5 more files than directory 1, the last 5 files of directory 2 will be marked as not comparable.

If ticked, the program will only compare identical file-names of the 2 directories. It will mark all files that appear in only one directory as a no-match. See Directory-Comparison Examples.

File Size: If not ticked, files with different size but otherwise identical will not be marked as a no-match. If ticked, any difference in file-size will be marked and reported.

Date last modified: If not ticked, files with different dates but otherwise identical will not be marked as a no-match. If ticked, any difference in file-date will be marked and reported.

File Attributes: If not ticked, files with different attributes but otherwise identical will not be marked as a no-match. If ticked, any difference in file-attribute will be marked and reported.

Save these Settings: Keep the choices you entered into this window for future comparisons. Will only be kept active until you close the directories.


 File-editing Tips

QuickSpot is NOT a full-blown file editor. It is a compare-utility, and everything is line-based in order to provide meaningful and accurate results. All features described below are not intended to be used for full-scale editing. Their usefulness is primarily to change the results of a comparison. It gives you the means of dealing with a discrepancy on the spot when QuickSpot has found one.

Actions that can be performed on the current line

Note: to make any line current, click on the text-content. The line's color will change to blue, or whatever color you may have selected in Color-Options (see under Menu).

Click, Double-Click

It will bring up an edit-box where you can overwrite, delete or insert contents. You can also cut, copy and paste.

Hit the Delete [DEL]-Key

It will delete the current line, after prompting you to confirm.

Hit the Insert [INS]-Key

It will insert one line above the current line.

Actions that can be performed on the menu

The following options allow for a quick fix of file-contents to optimise the next compare. For instance, Line 2 in File 1 may match with Line 3 in File 2, Line 3 in File 1 may match will Line 4 in File 2, and so on. QuickSpot cannot discover this asymmetry. What you can do is simply insert one Line before Line 2 in File 1. Then Line 2 in File 1 will become Line 3, therefore matching Line 3 in File 2, Line 3 in File 1 will become Line 4, again matching Line 4 in File 2, and so on

Insert

Insert a number of lines above or below the current line in either file. The current line is displayed in the popup-window, but you cannot change it there. Make sure to click on the line you want to be current before choosing this option.

Click GO to insert the line(s) without recomparing the 2 files.

Click GO/RE-SCAN to insert the line(s), then automatically re-compare based on the previous settings if they were saved or based on the defaults if they were not.

Delete

Delete a number of lines from the current line onward in either file. The current line is displayed in the popup-window, but you cannot change it there. Make sure to click on the line you want to be current before choosing this option.

Click GO to delete the line(s) without recomparing the 2 files.

Click GO/RE-SCAN to delete the line(s), then automatically re-compare based on the previous settings if they were saved or based on the defaults if they were not.

Copy/Merge

Use this feature to move or copy a line or block of text from one file to the other, or to another location within the same file.

Click GO to perform the copy/merge without recomparing the 2 files.

Click GO/RE-SCAN to perform the copy/merge, then automatically re-compare based on the previous settings if they were saved or based on the defaults if they were not.

The pane will be refreshed every time when you make a change; every change however will invalidate a previous comparison, if you have run one. QuickSpot will not automatically re-compare the directories every time you move, copy, insert or delete a line, unless you specify that you want it done by using the GO/RE-SCAN option. If you don't, the message "F9 to re-compare" is displayed on the status-bar at the bottom. Once you are done with the changes, just hit F9. QuickSpot will then re-compare the loaded files based on the current settings (if you saved them) or based on the defaults.


 Directory-editing Tips

We haven't re-invented Microsoft's Windows Explorer, but QuickSpot provides you with the necessary features to deal with a discrepancy on the spot when QuickSpot has found one. Directory editing options include deletion and renaming of files as well as copying or moving them from one directory-tree into another.

Double-clicking on a file can open it for QuickSpot file-comparison. This is set in Preferences; choices are open right away, prompt for open or do nothing. You can also set if a dragged file should by default be moved or copied.

Rename, delete, copy or move of entire directories is not supported. All actions on files is one file at a time.

Here are the options in detail:

Actions that can be performed on the current line

Note: to make any line current, click on the file-name. The line's color will change to blue, or whatever color you may have selected in Color-Options (see under Menu). If the current line is on a directory, these features will not work

Double-Click

Depending on the settings in preferences, either of these will happen:

QuickSpot will open the file for comparison and return to the File tab

QuickSpot will prompt you to open the file for comparison. Select Yes or No.

Nothing will happen

Hit the Delete [DEL]-Key

It will delete the current file, after prompting you to confirm. Warning: The Windows '95 Recycle-Bin is not supported. Deleted Files will really be gone !

Right-Mouse Click

A little dialog-box will pop up prompting you to rename the file. Rename it or cancel out.

Drag and Drop

As soon as you start dragging a file, the mouse-pointer will change to a QuickSpot Icon. Use only the left mouse-button to drag. You can only drag files, not directories or messages.

The target-directory, the one you're dragging to, must be visible in one of the panes. Watch the status bar at the bottom while dragging. It will tell you where you're currently dragging to, depending on where the mouse-pointer is currently pointed.

You can drop the dragged file on a different directory in either pane, but it must be a different directory. Upon dropping, a little window will pop up asking for confirmation and give you the option to move or copy the file. You can select either. The default shown is configurable in the preference screen.

The pane will be refreshed every time when you make a change; every change however will invalidate a previous comparison, if you have run one. QuickSpot will not automatically re-compare the directories every time you move, copy, delete or rename a file. That would be way too time-consuming. Rather, the message "F9 to re-compare" is displayed on the status-bar at the bottom. Once you are done with the changes, just hit F9. QuickSpot will then re-compare the loaded directory-trees based on the current settings (if you saved them) or based on the defaults.


 File-Comparison Examples

a) Applying relative Lines (compare different ranges in the 2 files) and skip lines:

Example Files-Contents: (used in all examples in section (a)

File 1: Line 1	abc// here are the comments
File 2: Line 1	abc// here are some other comments
File 1: Line 2	12345678// here are the comments.
File 2: Line 2	12345678.............// here are more comments.
File 1: Line 3	!@#$%^&*// another line of crap
File 2: Line 3	!@#$%^&*................// even more crap
File 1: Line 4	fourth liner1234// will not cause a discrepancy
File 2: Line 4	fourth l?ner1234// woll nit couse a doscripency
File 1: Line 5	fifth line// crap and more crap
File 2: Line 5	fifth l?ne// compare comments - no way !
File 1: Line 6	sixth...............................//+diff1
File 2: Line 6	sixth
File 1: Line 7	seventh.......//+diff
File 2: Line 7	seventh//
File 1: Line 8	eight//blah
File 2: Line 8	eight/
File 1: Line 9	nine//nine ?+diff
File 2: Line 9	nine........// no diff ?
File 1: Line 10	ü, ä, ö, Õ (international characters)
File 2: Line 10	ten//end
Note that TABS and spaces are displayed as dots (.) to avoid ambiguity.

Example 1: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 1-10 File2: 1-10	ALL	NONE	//

Defaults are used for all other fields:Select ALL positions, No Match Case (e=E), do not ignore leading blanks, ignore trailing blanks. Note that QuickSpot treats TABS as a row of blanks, but displays them as .

Results:

Line 1 will match; discrepancies occur after the comment sign //

Line 2 will match; trailing blanks are ignored; everything after the // is ignored.

Line 3 will match; as 2

Line 4 will not match; see discrepancy at position 9 - before the // characters

Line 5 will not match; see discrepancy at position 8 - before the // characters

Line 6 will match; note there is no // in File 2 but // and everything after it is ignored

Line 7 will match; as 2

Line 8 will not match; File 1 contains the / as a comment which is not equal to //

Line 9 will match; as 2

Line 10 will not match; position 1 onwards.

Example 2: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 1-10 File2: 3-12	ALL	NONE	//

Line 1 of File 1 will now be compared with Line 3 of File 2

This goes all the way down to where Line 8 of File 1 is compared with Line 10 of File 2

Lines 11 & 12 do not exist in File 2; QuickSpot will put out an error-message for this

Example 3: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 1-10 File2: 3-12	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 1: Skip in both	//

Lines 1/2 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 3 in File 1 will be compared with Line 5 in File 2

Line 4 in File 1 will be compared with Line 6 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 7 in File 1 will be compared with Line 9 in File 2

Line 8 in File 1 will be compared with Line 10 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 1 will not be compared

Example 4: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 1-10 File2: 3-12	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 1: No Skip	//

Lines 1/2 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 3 in File 1 will be compared with Line 3 in File 2

Line 4 in File 1 will be compared with Line 4 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 7 in File 1 will be compared with Line 5 in File 2

Line 8 in File 1 will be compared with Line 6 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 1 will not be compared

Example 5: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 3-12 File2: 1-10	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 1: Skip in both	//

Lines 1/2 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 3 in File 1 will be compared with Line 1 in File 2

Line 4 in File 1 will be compared with Line 2 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 7 in File 1 will be compared with Line 5 in File 2

Line 8 in File 1 will be compared with Line 6 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 1 will not be compared

Note that the line counting follows file 1. Line 3 is in the compare range and therefore compared with the corresponding line 1 in file 2. The skip-feature applies only at the first occurrence in the selected lines for file 1, that is line 5.

Example 6: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 3-12 File2: 1-10	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 1: No Skip	//

Lines 1/2 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 3 in File 1 will be compared with Line 1 in File 2

Line 4 in File 1 will be compared with Line 2 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 1 will not be compared

Line 7 in File 1 will be compared with Line 3 in File 2

Line 8 in File 1 will be compared with Line 4 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 1 will not be compared

The difference between this example and No. 5 is the "no skip" that was applied here. Lines compared in File 2 do not skip

Example 7: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 3-12 File2: 1-10	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 2: Skip in both	//

Lines 1/2 of File 2 will not be compared

Line 5 in File 1 will be compared with Line 3 in File 2

Line 6 in File 1 will be compared with Line 4 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 2 will not be compared

Line 9 in File 1 will be compared with Line 7 in File 2

Line 10 in File 1 will be compared with Line 8 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 2 will not be compared

Here the Refer-to File is File 2. Because the first 2 lines in a 4 line block are skipped in file 2, and line selection for file 1 starts at line 3, in effect the comparison starts at line 5 in file 1.

Example 8: Comparison Criteria:

Lines	Pos	Skip	Comment
File1: 3-12 File2: 1-10	ALL	Lines 1-2 in 4 lines Refer to File 2: No Skip	//

Lines 1/2 of File 2 will not be compared

Line 3 in File 1 will be compared with Line 3 in File 2

Line 4 in File 1 will be compared with Line 4 in File 2

Lines 5/6 of File 2 will not be compared

Line 5 in File 1 will be compared with Line 7 in File 2

Line 6 in File 1 will be compared with Line 8 in File 2

Lines 9/10 of File 2 will not be compared

The difference between this example and No. 7 is the "no skip" that was applied here. Lines compared in File 1 do not skip

b) Using particular line-positions, ignoring/considering leading/trailing blanks:

Example Files-Line: (used in all examples 1-6 in section (b)

File 1:	abc..// here are the comments
File 2:	abc...// here are some other comments
Note that TABS and spaces are displayed as dots (.) to avoid ambiguity.

Example 1: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc.. abc...	ALL	//	No	No
will not match due to different trailing blanks/tabs

Example 2: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc abc	ALL	//	No	Yes
will match; all trailing blanks/tabs have been ignored

Example 3: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc.. abc...	1 - 5		No	No
will not match; as in example 1

Example 4: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc../ abc...	1 - 6	//	No	Yes
will not match; focusing on positions 1-6 truncates the comment in line 1, which then is no longer recognised.

Example 5: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc abc.../	1 - 7	//	No	Yes
will not match; focusing on positions 1-7 truncates the comment in line 2, which then is no longer recognised.

Example 6: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
abc abc	1 - 8	//	No	Yes
will match; comment now included in both lines; trailing blanks ignored.

Example Files-Line: (used in all examples 7-8 in section (b)

File 1:	..REMabc
File 2:	REMabc...
 = TAB or SPACE; here characterised like that in order not to be ambiguous.

Example 7: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
..REMa REMabc	1 - 6	REM	No	No
will not match; different contents before REM appears.

Example 8: Comparison Criteria:

Resulting Line Content	Position	Comment	Ignore Leading	Ignore Trailing
nothing nothing	1 - 6	REM	No	Yes
will match; before REM in File 1, 2 blank characters were retrieved, then discarded because trailing blanks are set on. In a character-string that only contains TABS or spaces, everything is considered leading as well as trailing spaces. An empty string was retrieved from File 2.


 Directory-Comparison Examples

Example Directories:

Directory 1	Directory 2

Content	Content

atomtime.doc	clock.doc

atomtime.exe	clock.exe

faxc.pub	faxc.dat

objects.doc	moreobjs.doc

sp340.txt	sp340.txt

assutext1.txt	text2.txt

vbuguide.doc

Comparing with file name not ticked will cause the program to compare:

atomtime.doc	with	clock.doc

atomtime.exe	with	clock.exe

faxc.pub	with	faxc.dat

objects.doc	with	moreobjs.doc

sp340.txt	with	sp340.txt

assutext1.txt	with	text2.txt

vbuguide.doc	with	---

and report, for example:

Line 4: File Date/Attribute are different

Line 5: File Attribute is different

Table 1/Line 8: No equivalent file for vbuguide.doc

Comparing with file name ticked will only compare sp340.txt, because this is the only file-name that exists in both directories. For the rest you'd get these messages:

Table 1/Line 2: File atomtime.doc exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.

Table 1/Line 3: File atomtime.exe exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.

Table 2/Line 2: File clock.doc exists in Dir-Tree 2, but not in 1.

Table 2/Line 3: File clock.exe exists in Dir-Tree 2, but not in 1.

Table 2/Line 4: File faxc.dat exists in Dir-Tree 2, but not in 1.

Table 1/Line 4: File faxc.pub exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.

Table 2/Line 5: File moreobjs.doc exists in Dir-Tree 2, but not in 1.

Table 1/Line 5: File objects.doc exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.

Table 1/Line 7: File assutext1.txt exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.

Table 2/Line 7: File text2.txt exists in Dir-Tree 2, but not in 1.

Table 1/Line 8: File vbuguide.doc exists in Dir-Tree 1, but not in 2.


Menu
 Menu and Shortcut Keys

Menu Item	Shortcut Key	Description
File	Alt + F
Open File 1	F11	Load a file into QuickSpot
Open File 2	F12	Load a second file into QuickSpot that will be compared against the file loaded under File 1.
Save File 1	Shft + F11	Save File 1 loaded plus any changes you made.
Save File 2	Shft + F12	Save File 2 loaded plus any changes you made. Note: If you loaded the same file twice, which is possible in order to allow comparing different segments of the same file, be careful that you save the correct version. If you save File 2 after you saved File 1, and the files are the same, the version in the second pane will overwrite the first.
Save As		Save the currently active File under a different File-Name. Note: the currently active file is the one where you have currently selected and/or edited a line.
Close All		Unload both Files from QuickSpot. You will be prompted to save if you modified any of the files.
Print File 1		Print the contents of file 1. Note: If - at the time of printing - file 1 was compared against another file, lines that do not match file 2 will be marked with '<<<<<' at the right-end of the line(s).
Print File 2		Print the contents of file 2. Note: If - at the time of printing - file 2 was compared against another file, lines that do not match file 1 will be marked with '<<<<<' at the right-end of the line(s).
Print Discrepancies		Print all lines of the 2 loaded files that do not match, with an indication to the first position that does not match.
Exit	Ctrl + F4	Quit the Program
Edit	Alt + E
Cut, Copy, Paste	CTRL + X/C/V	Applicable once you select a line to edit.
Find/Replace	CTRL + F	Brings up the search-window. Note: Once you have defined a search-criteria and QuickSpot found the first instance, it will highlight the line. To continue the search, simply hit F3.
Insert	I	Insert one or more lines above or below the currently selected line in the currently selected file.
Delete	D	Delete one or more lines above or below the currently selected line in the currently selected file.
Copy/Merge		Copy or move a block of lines from one file to the other; or to another position within the same file.
View	Alt + V
Preferences		Set your preferences. See QuickTour for details.
Colors		Choose different colors or restore the default colors. Other colors like the Window panel or the reverse-color ID are set directly in Control-Panel (check Windows Help).
Clear Marks		Clear all lines that were highlighted in a previously run comparison.
Directories	Alt + D
Open DirTree 1		Load a directory tree (parent directory and all subdirectories under it) into QuickSpot
Open DirTree 2		Load a second directory tree into QuickSpot that will be compared against the one loaded under 1.
Close All		Close the currently loaded directory-trees
Print DirTree1		Print all files/subdirectories of the directory tree loaded
Print DirTree2		Print all files/subdirectories of the directory tree loaded
Print Discrepancies		Print all messages that were created when the 2 currently loaded directory trees were compared.
Options	Alt + O
Edit File 1	1	Fire up Notepad and load the file that's currently loaded as File 1.
Edit File 2	2	Fire up Notepad and load the file that's currently loaded as File 2.
Scan Files	S	(Re)-compare the 2 currently loaded files and specify options. See File-scanning Tips for details.
Scan Directories		(Re)-compare the 2 currently loaded directory-trees and specify options. See Directory-scanning Tips for details.
Help	Alt + H
Help	F1	View Help - this is the currently selected option
Using Help	Shift + F1	Pick Help for Windows
About		Get to know us, check to see if you have a demo or a full-version, and how to steal the full version.
Available Memory		Quick check to see how much memory is left on your computer
We provided a toolbar for what we thought will be the most frequently used menu options (apologies if we missed your favourite). Move the mouse over the tool-icon to see what each button on the toolbar can be used for.


 Support

QuickSpot is a shareware-product that comes at a very low price. But this is not an excuse not to provide support. However, we cannot guarantee a certain response-time but we'll do what we can.

The preferred way of communication is by E-mail. Please provide as many details as possible when asking for support, including the version of Windows, if your systems has VB and/or other VB-applications installed, whether the problem that occurs is random or regular, etc.

Check "Help.. About" for the latest contact-information.