Reviewing changes using the Compare tool

The Tools→Changes submenu is hidden by default. You need to enable it by checking "Enable the 'Tools|Changes' Submenu" in Options→Preferences, Features section.

Requires XMLmind XML Editor Professional Edition.

Why use the Compare tool?

The Compare tool allows to compare two revisions of the same initial document.

Unlike generic XML comparison tools,

• you must explicitly activate the change detection in the initial document if you want to be able to compare two revisions using the Compare tool. This activation is made by selecting menu item Tools→Changes→Activate Change Detection.
• Moreover adding or deleting elements using a text or XML editor other than XXE will cause the change detection to be automatically deactivated the next time you'll reopen the document in XXE. Any other kind of change, for example text or attribute changes, poses no problem.

After selecting menu item Tools→Changes→Compare Revisions in order to display it, the Compare tool will show you the differences existing between two revisions. It also allows to accept or reject some or all the changes.

The Compare tool showing the differences existing between doc.xml (the initial document) and docB.xml (a revision of doc.xml), displayed side by side

A simple use case

This tool is typically used by an author after her/his draft document has been reviewed and possibly modified by other authors. For example, let's suppose that john has finished writing doc.xml.

John activates the change detection in doc.xml using Tools→Changes→Activate Change Detection, saves the document to disk and then sends a copy to Bart.

Bart modifies his copy. He also adds a remark using Tools→Remark→Insert or Edit Remark explaining why he deleted the last paragraph. This results in creating docB.xml, a revision of doc.xml.

Note that Bart didn't even notice that the change detection has been activated in the copy of doc.xml he has received. The use of this facility should be completely transparent to the user of XXE, even in terms of perceived performances.

After the review of the document by Bart is finished, John receives docB.xml.

John first compares doc.xml to docB.xml, accepts all the changes except the commented deletion made by Bart, then saves docB.xml to disk.

Finally John renames the “approved” docB.xml to doc.xml.

Watch the screencast

(same but in a new window )