$images\ebx_-618517721.gif$ Compare Options

General Options

The " $images\ebx_410215131.gif$ Compare Options" tab has the items shown below:

Setting	Description
Ignore Case	Ignore character case differences.
Ignore White Space	Ignore white space characters (Horizontal Tab, Vertical Tab, New Line, Form Feed, Carriage Return, and Space).
Ignore Empty Lines	Ignore lines that are completely empty. White space characters alone will make a line not empty.
Remove Empty Lines	Remove any lines with no visible textual content prior to comparing.
Beep When Done	When set, a system beep will occur when the comparison has completed.
Load last worked on files at start of application	Re-load files you were working on when last exiting the program.

Refresh Options

When pressing the F5 or $images\ebx_1088513984.gif$ button the Diff View is updated. At this time the selected files can optionally be re-loaded into the Original and Modified editors before the comparison, or the text already in these editors will simply be reviewed for recent changes.

Printing Options

The margins can be specified here for all sides of the page, of all the editors in this form. Better printing results from creating an MS Word style report, and opening and printing the report in MS Word. For example the underline becomes a double underline within MS Word.

Word File Options

Specify passwords that may be required to open the Original or Modified file.

Additional options for specifying pages will be included eventually.

Excel File Options

Specify worksheets, rows and columns to be compared and whether or not formulas are to be compared.

You can specify to put the sheet name above the data corresponding to that sheet. This can be helpful if you are comparing more than one sheet at a time. Narrowing what you compare leads to quicker and concise reports. Also an option is adding a new line character which is good for printing reports.

You may want to pad the data with spaces, if so, use the largest number that you anticipate a column/field having.

Quick Excel Data Extraction will use Softinterface’s internal methods for getting the data from an Excel file. This is quicker than using Excel, and is extremely useful if you don’t have Excel.

Lastly, you can specify passwords to open the Excel files if required.

PowerPoint File Options

You can optionally include Slide and Shape Number to the content being compared. It is recommended you do so, as the comparison results are better understood, and highlighted better.

Notes from within each slide can optionally be included in the comparison.

You can also specify which slides you want to compare. Narrowing what you compare leads to quicker and concise reports.

HTML/XML File Options

In order to compare HTML source scripts, this item should be selected.

PDF File Options

Depending on how the PDF file was created, it may be necessary to experiment with the options to see what gives you the optimal results. When converting from PDF to RTF/DOC the following advanced options are available by pressing the Advanced Options button. These options are not available for Text or HTML formatted files.

Option	Meaning
Adjust Font Names	Select this option to use the fonts that have been installed on your PC. This may enhance the accuracy of the resulting RTF file.
Adjust Spacing	Only available with the Use Textboxes for Exact Placement option. Adjusts spacing according to the PDF spacing.
Conversion Method	There are three options for conversion method. Choose each based on input format and the desired output. See Document Layout for more information on format of input document. Preserve Layout Using Spacing and Tabs – available for single column documents only. Positioning of text within the resulting document will preserve the layout of the original using tabs and spaces instead of textboxes. See also the Detect Header option. Use Textboxes for Exact Placement – resulting text maintains the same positions as the original through the use of textboxes. See also Merge Text and Adjust Spacing options. Text Flow – extracts text and graphics from the document but without maintaining the original layout. Available for single or multiple column documents, editing may be easier if Text Flow is selected.
Detect Header	Available only with conversion option Preserve Layout Using Spacing and Tabs. When selected Convert Doc will automatically detect the header and footer in a document.
Document Layout	There are three possible types: Single-column – use for simple documents that don’t contain columns. Multi-column – for use with complex documents that may contain columns. Select the Text Flow method for this document type. Pleading – specifically for use with documents in a legal pleading format. To edit the line numbers in the resulting RTF document, select "View-> Header and Footer" in MS Word.
Extract Hyperlinks	Choose this option to retain the hyperlinks of the original document.
From Page	Found under the "Specify Pages" tab, this option is only available if the Specify Pages to Convert option is selected. Indicates the first page of a range to be converted.
Image Format	Found under the "Images" tab, select JPG or BMP. JPG is the default.
Include Text	You may optionally have text from the original PDF included in the RTF file that is created. Check this option to include the text from the original PDF file. Not checking this option will exclude all text from being added to the resulting RTF file. This does not however, exclude images, that may or may not have text in them.
Merge Paragraph	Select this option to place multiple lines of text into paragraphs. This will make editing easier, but may, under certain circumstances cause the document to look different from the original. This is due to font incompatibilities between PDF and RTF. If the option Use Textboxes for Exact Placement is being utilized, the Merge Text option should also be selected.
Merge Text	Select this option to merge individual words into lines of text. Not selecting this option will result in each word being placed into individual text boxes. This preserves textual position from the original document more accurately.
Owner Password	Owner password(s) for encrypted files. Use a comma to separate multiple passwords.
Shrink Fonts	Selecting this option will ensure that all text fits within its original area on your screen. This is useful if the extracted text is lengthy. The option automatically alters font size to fit within the text boxes of your RTF documents. Only available with the Use Textboxes for Exact Placement option.
Specify Pages to Convert	Found under the "Specify Pages" tab. If this option is selected you may indicate a range of pages to be converted.
To Page	Found under the "Specify Pages" tab, this option is only available if the Specify Pages to Convert option is selected. Indicates the final page of a range of pages being converted.
User Password	User password(s) for encrypted files. Use a comma to separate multiple passwords.