UltraCompare allows comparing different types of items. In this regard, it supports various comparison modes, such as Text, 3-way Text, Binary Smart, Binary Fast, Folder, 3-way Folder and Table. Fortunately, it works not only with local but remote contents as well, including FTP sites and networked drives.
The tool has a simple-to-use interface. Like other applications of the same kind, UltraCompare allows side-by-side comparison, which may be set to be horizontal or vertical. Depending on the mode chosen, it is possible to drag the elements, like folders and files, to the corresponding panes. Luckily, there is a tabbed pane on the left from which you can easily reopen visited places, sessions and remote locations.
UltraCompare supports multiple types of files, including RTF, PDF and Word documents. It can even compare the contents of archives on the fly. Likewise, it may be highly appreciated by developers, thanks to its ability to compare sources with full syntax highlighting. In this respect, good news is that this tool is integrated with Git, Subversion and CVS.
Luckily, this application lets you not only view the differences but also edit files and even merge various sources into a new file. Similarly, as an additional feature, it helps you find duplicate files, although I would recommend using a dedicated tool instead.
To avoid deceptive comparisons, UltraCompare can be configured to ignore unimportant differences, like whitespaces and line endings. Likewise, you can set it to disregard given phrases at the beginning, middle and end of lines. It is also good that the application allows filtering comparison results. For instance, you can choose the view similarities or differences only. Fortunately, UltraCompare allows saving difference and result reports in HTML and text format.
All in all, UltraCompare definitely improves your productivity if you need to work with various sources. It may be equally useful for office work and software development jobs. Personally, I loved the possibility of comparing spreadsheets, which is a frequent task for me. The product may be tried at no cost. However, I did not like that it prompts you to purchase another tool by the same developer, which is called UltraEdit.
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