3rd March 2010

Version 2 of DiffEngineX can better handle large numbers of differences, when hyperlink navigation is turned on. It can handle the case when Excel 2007 has compatibility mode turned on by default.

12th February 2010

A new option has been added to compare Excel cell comments.

If a workbook of interest is compared against a blank spreadsheet, this option will effectively create a list of all the comments.

4th January 2010

DiffEngineX can now treat numeric values as equal if they differ less than a specified value. This adds to its previous ability of being able to round numbers to a specified number of decimal places before comparing them.

NOTE: If you wish to compare the calculated values of formulae, rather than the formulae text itself, you should select the option Their Calculated Values.

29th September 2009

Add Hyperlinks To Aid Navigation has been added to the Options dialog. This connects the difference report to every cell found to differ between two spreadsheets. Please refer to the help page for details.

16th September 2009

3rd September 2009

A new option has been added to compare Excel defined names (named ranges and formulae).

If a workbook of interest is compared against a blank spreadsheet, this new option will effectively create a list of all the defined names.

12th November 2008

Two new options have been added. Use Alignment Plus ensures that unmatched rows in sheet #1 are always paired with blank rows in sheet #2. This makes spotting new and deleted rows easier.

Highlight Character Level Differences highlights character level differences directly on automatically made copies of your workbooks. DiffEngineX could always show character level differences, however previously this was restricted to the difference report.

3rd November 2008

A new option has been added to ignore superfluous white space found in between words. Another option treats curly double and single quotes as being equivalent to their straight counterparts. Dashes can be treated as equivalent to hyphens.

30th June 2008 – What's In A Color? (Option Now Deprecated)

By default DiffEngineX uses the color red for a deleted cell, green for an added cell and light orange for a modified cell. However when is a modified cell not really a modified cell, but rather part of a row that has been entirely deleted and replaced by another row that just happens to be occupying its old position?

When Align Rows is specified, you select a column or columns that specify the parts of a row which make up its unique identifier. If the unique identifier is present in one worksheet, but not the other then the row has either been deleted or it is a new one. As such coloring the identifying part of the row light orange is inappropriate, as what really has happened is that there is one deletion and one addition.

The Extras dialog now has an option called Interpret modified cell as deletion and addition... which lets you choose how DiffEngineX colors the unique parts of each row.

* This option is now obsolete. We strongly recommend the use of Use Alignment Plus instead.

You may wish to get Excel to sort the color highlighted sheets afterwards on a color of your choice to get all the deleted and added rows to line up. Remember to only sort on the unique parts of a row.

When determining whether a row has been added or deleted, it is helpful to only look at the unique parts of each row.

A new command line argument (/show) has been added. When the comparison has completed the generated reports will be automatically opened in Excel, if this is specified.

2nd April 2008:

DiffEngineX's open file dialogs now have an All files (*.*) entry directly beneath the Excel Workbook files (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb) one.

This means that any file type that can be directly opened by Microsoft Excel can be compared by DiffEngineX without an intermediate step of first opening the document in Excel and re-saving as an Excel workbook.

However it is recommended the data should be directly in the form of an Excel workbook for best results. Otherwise it might be difficult to select which columns should be used for row alignment. DiffEngineX is intended for tabular data.

If this new feature is used to compare plain text files it is advisable to select at least the first 10 (A – J), 20 (A – T) or 40 (A - AN) columns to align rows on, in case a large number of lines are preceded by white space characters. Align Rows should be selected. If you intend to look at the difference report to find out the differences at the character level, the option Color in red precisely the parts of... should be selected.

21st January 2008:

It is no longer necessary to submit your DiffEngineX Serial Numbers in order to receive registration keys, if you are using Version 1.40 or later. A new type of registration key has been created which is not tied to a particular computer in advance. It requires Internet activation and typically one key can activate as many copies as you have licenses for. If DiffEngineX is uninstalled and reinstalled on a new computer we have a policy of reissuing or reactivating keys at no further cost.

18th October 2007:

Version 1.35 has the option to ignore leading and trailing white space when comparing spreadsheet cells. Large amounts of text can be read more easily on the difference report, if the option Color in red precisely the parts of... is selected. The cell size is automatically increased.

14th September 2007:

The Hide Matching Rows feature (available from the Extras dialog) is intended to help users see only rows with differences, without a vast number of matching rows in between them, when looking at the color highlighted workbook copies. However some users wish to see just the opposite, namely only the rows that are identical between two worksheets. To this end the Hide Different Rows features has been added to Version 1.32.

When Hide Different Rows is selected, all rows containing differences are hidden in the color highlighted worksheets.

(N.B. If you are comparing sheets with different names inside the same workbook, be careful as the two automatically generated workbook copies will each only contain one worksheet with the hidden rows. For example if the workbook contains the sheets alpha and omega, the first workbook copy will have alpha with the hidden rows and the second workbook copy will have omega with the hidden rows. The second workbook copy will also contain the sheet alpha, but it will not have hidden rows. To make things clearer you can select "Hide Different Rows, but show 4 rows on either side as context ", which makes the altered sheets stand out more easily as they will likely contain a few colored rows either side of each matching row.)

16th July 2007:

Version 1.31 contains a new Tips section. DiffEngineX is used on mainly two different kinds of workbook. One is heavily based on formulae and often used for a financial or scientific model. The second contains hundreds to thousands of data rows. The Tips section provides a concise way to find out what needs to be done differently for each type of data. For example when comparing data rows, it is sometimes necessary to get Excel to sort the rows first as a prior step before comparison.

15th June 2007:

Version 1.30 of DiffEngineX can compare numeric values to a user specified number of decimal places. This allows numbers with small fractional differences to be ignored.

5th March 2007:

DiffEngineX gains the Microsoft Certified for Windows Vista logo. (The software is still compatible with Windows XP and all versions of Microsoft Office.)

DiffEngineX is now digitally signed with a VeriSign certificate.

26th January 2007:

From Version 1.28 onwards DiffEngineX is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The version number is shown on the About Box available from the Help menu.

If you are running an earlier version and wish to upgrade, a new purchase and registration key is required. (Unless stated otherwise upgrades to later versions do not require a new registration key.)

12th January 2007:

DiffEngineX is often used to find out which new rows have been added to a list of names and addresses. However your Excel workbooks often need a little preparation first and the correct DiffEngineX options need to be selected to get the best results. A short tutorial giving full details has been added to our online help page.