How
To Reference
Selecting
files
File types
Merging two files
Merging more than two files
Saving a session
Resuming a session
Print options
Troubleshooting
Contacting
Customer Support
Selecting
files
When you start up MergeRight, or if you use
the New... menu item in the File menu, you will be shown a file specification
menu panel that allows you to specify the branch files you wnt to compare
and optionally an ancestor file, and result file. You can type in the file
paths, or if you don't know them press the "Choose" buttons next to the
filename text box. This will cause a file system browser to be raised that
will allow you to explore the file system and then select the file you
want. Repeat for each other file.
File
types
MergeRight normally does not pay attention
to the file type of the files you compare. It treats all ancestor, branch
and result files as text files. However, in addition to these files,MergeRight
does have a special structured File Type called the MRG file. The MRG file
contains a copy of the Merge data objects that MergeRight creates and operates
on. Thus, if you need to quit before you have resolved all the differences,
and you want to save your work in progress, the MRG file is the way to
do it. You may even want to save the MRG file after creating the result
file, because the MRG file retains information as to which diffs you accepted,
which you rejected and which edits you made.
Merging
two files
MergeRight will allow you to no specify a
common ancestor and just specify branch files. When you do this no recommendations
can be offered, but you can still resolve all the differences manually
or using accelerators like Select Right..
If you have an ancestor, you can merge
two branch files, and the system should be able to make recommendations.
Sometimes this is refered to as a three file Merge, although this is really
incorrect, it is really a 2 file merge relative to a common ancestor.
Merging
more than two files
Earlier prototypes of MergeRight supported
three files across and even more. We thought that merging three files all
at once would save time and reduce errors. But we were wrong. Iin test
after test we found that comparing three files simultaneously led users
to make to more mistakes and took longer than if they just merged two of
them and then merged the result of the first merge with the second. This
is now the preferred way to merge more than two files at once, and the
option to see more than two side by side is no longer supported.
Saving
a session
To save your current Merge Session, use the
file menu and the Save MRG item. Note that you cannot save a result file
unless all differences have been resolved, whereas you can always save
the current MRG file.
Resuming
a session
To resume a session, use the New item
in the File menu and select resume and specify your MRG file.
Print
options
Like saving to a result file, printing the
result file can only happen once all differences have been resolved. On
the other hand, we provide a special Print option which prints the concordance
(MRG file) view, even when not all diffs have been resolved.
