Comparing Folders
Kaleidoscope can show the differences between the contents of two folders in an outline.
When comparing two directories, the folder comparison will highlight files or folders that are different. When the compared directories contain subfolders, the ones with differences will be opened by default. Click the chevron next to a folder to show/hide its content in the outline.
Double-click an item to open the A/B pair in a new tab for further comparison.
Folder Differences
Files and folders on the left that do not have matches (are unmatched) on the right have a deleted icon and are highlighted in red.
Files and folders on the right that do not have matches on the left have an added icon and are highlighted in green. They are also called unmatched.
Files or folders that are equal on both sides are not highlighted.
Files or folders that are in both directories but are different have a modified icon and are highlighted in blue. Differences can be due to file size, modification date, contents, etc.
Different rows show you additional information encoded in font styling and coloring: If the Size differs between both items, the Size is shown in bold type on both sides. Also the side with the larger item shows the Size blue color, making it quicker to spot that fact.
Similar to the Size, the Date Modified is also shown in bold when different between sides, and the side with the more recent change is shown in blue color. Note that items that are otherwise equal but have a differing modification date are not generally considered different in Kaleidoscope.
Hint: Hover the mouse cursor over file name, date or size to see tooltips with more precise information.
Notes
The toolbar item on the bottom left and the View menu offer commands to collapse all folders at once, and to expand all items that have changes.
You can adjust icon size and font size in the Folder Settings.
Comparing large directories with many files can take quite long. The bottom left area of the window informs about progress in processing the difference.
When comparing many large media files, the Skip checking all data… setting has a big influence on performance.
Comparing folders does not use the same underlying technology as comparing text or images. Settings specific to text or images, such as Ignore Whitespace cannot be honored when comparing folders.
Filtering Results
You can use the toolbar buttons in the top right of the window to filter the folder listing to make reviewing the differences easier. The window subtitle shows the count of different, equal and unmatched items.
Different will display files that are different and folders that have differences in their content.Equal will display files and folders that are the same on both sides.Unmatched will display items that do not have a match on the other side.
Kaleidoscope can help you merge files and folders by enabling you to copy items from A to B or B to A. Learn more about Folder Merging.
