Learn Beyond Compare in 5 Minutes
Text Compare
Git
Scripts and the Command Line
Table Compare
Sync / Folders
Other
Quickstart: move a file
If you find the interface of Beyond Compare (BC) intuitive, skip this page.
Option 1
Situation: You installed Beyond Compare. Now all you want to do is move files from Point A to Point B and call it a day.
From the pulldown menu choose
Session->NewSession->FolderCompare Load a source folder by dragging it with the mouse and dropping it on the left side, anywhere. Load a destination folder by dragging and dropping it to the right side. On the left side, with the mouse, left-click to choose your folder(s). Then right-click the mouse for this context menu:
Option 2
Alternatively, try doing your copy with the specialized Folder Sync session, especially if 99% of what you want to do in Beyond Compare is usually copying folders and files.
From the pulldown menu choose
Session->NewSession->FolderSync Use right-click if you want to turn these arrows on/off (1). Each arrow is a prediction toggle of which files are about to get copied. When you are ready, press SyncNow button (2). There is no undo, so maybe try a few small test files first.
Big advantages of using Beyond Compare for copying things:
- BC can open and preview more types of files more guickly than either Finder or Explorer.
- Unlike your computer's file system, Beyond Compare is unlikely to create 99 confusing copies of the same file all over the place. Beyond Compare's core competency is checking the two files and overwriting the older, smaller, less-desirable one. Beyond Compare is for neat people or maybe messy people who envy neat people.
- Your folders can be remote, like, in the cloud or reachable by FTP type protocols. If you are remote from your server, Beyond Compare is like a deluxe version of Filezilla or termal FTP.
- If you are on Windows, BC is much more intuitive for poking around in your tree than Windows Explorer.. The Expand button toggles the whole tree open and closed.
- The flatten-folder-tree feature is worth the price alone. From the menu of a large FolderCompare session, try this:
View->IgnoreFolderStructureMy favorite! - If you are a power user, you can set Folder Sync to happen as a scheduled task in your operating system. This requires that you know how to find a file from the command line of your machine.