<html><head><title>Comparing Files And Interpreting The Information In The Input Windows</title><linkrel="stylesheet"href="help:/common/tde-default.css"type="text/css"><metaname="generator"content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.67.2"><metaname="keywords"content="KDE, kdeextragear, kdiff3, diff, merge, CVS, triplediff, compare, files, directories, version control, three-way-merge, in-line-differences, synchronise, kpart, tdeio, networktransparent, editor, white space, comments"><linkrel="start"href="index.html"title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><linkrel="up"href="documentation.html"title="Chapter2.File Comparison And Merge"><linkrel="prev"href="pasteinput.html"title="Paste and Drop Input"><linkrel="next"href="merging.html"title="Merging And The Merge Output Editor Window"><metahttp-equiv="Content-Type"content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><metaname="GENERATOR"content="KDE XSL Stylesheet V1.13 using libxslt"></head><bodybgcolor="white"text="black"link="#0000FF"vlink="#840084"alink="#0000FF"><divstyle="background-image: url(help:/common/top-middle.png); width: 100%; height: 131px;"><divstyle="position: absolute; right: 0px;"><imgsrc="help:/common/top-right-konqueror.png"style="margin: 0px"alt=""></div><divstyle="position: absolute; top: 25px; right: 100px; text-align: right; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold; text-shadow: #fff 0px 0px 5px; color: #444">Comparing Files And Interpreting The Information In The Input Windows</div></div><divstyle="margin-top: 20px; background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><divstyle="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><aaccesskey="p"href="pasteinput.html">Prev</a></div><divstyle="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><aaccesskey="n"href="merging.html">Next</a></div><divclass="navCenter">File Comparison And Merge</div></div><divclass="sect1"lang="en"><divclass="titlepage"><div><div><h2class="title"style="clear: both"><aname="interpretinginformation"></a>Comparing Files And Interpreting The Information In The Input Windows</h2></div></div></div><divclass="screenshot"><divxmlns:doc="http://nwalsh.com/xsl/documentation/1.0"class="mediaobject"><hr><imgsrc="screenshot_diff.png"><hr></div></div><divclass="sect2"lang="en"><divclass="titlepage"><div><div><h3class="title"><aname="id2564410"></a>Info Line</h3></div></div></div><p>
Sometimes the algorithm places the wrong lines next to each other. Or you want to compare
one piece of text with text at a completely different position in the other file.
For these situations you can manually instruct <spanclass="application">KDiff3</span> to align certain lines.
Mark the text for which you want to improve the alignment with the mouse as you would
for copy and paste in the first diff view and then choose "Add Manual Diff Alignment"
in the "Diffview"-menu (keyboard shortcut "Ctrl-Y") . An orange bar will appear in
the summary column next to the chosen text. Repeat this for the second and
(if available) third diff view. <spanclass="application">KDiff3</span> will immediately recalculate the differences everytime you do this.
and will align the chosen lines. Of course some of the previously matching lines in between
might not match anymore.
</p><p>
Currently merging doesn't support the use of manual diff help.
</p></div><divclass="sect2"lang="en"><divclass="titlepage"><div><div><h3class="title"><aname="joinsplitsections"></a>Manually Joining and Splitting Diff Sections</h3></div></div></div><p>
In some cases <spanclass="application">KDiff3</span> will see too many or too few diff sections for merging. In such a
case you can join or split existing sections.
</p><p>
Add new sections by first selecting text in the lines that belong together in either input window (as for copying to the clipboard).
Then choose "Split Diff At Selection" in the "Merge" menu.
Splits will be added above the first line and below the last line of the selected text.
If you only want to add one section, then select text beginning at another section-split.
</p><p>
For joining sections in either input window select something in the lines from the sections to join.
(You can join several sections in one step too.) Then choose "Join selected Diffs" in the "Merge"-menu.
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