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 Product Codes 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.

2nd March 2007:

Version 1.29 of DiffEngineX has been refactored to use less memory. Row alignment and worksheet comparisons are faster.

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:

Many customers use DiffEngineX 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.