The controls on this settings page enable you to create, edit, delete, and select filters to control which files and folders appear within a folder comparison.
For information about filters, patterns, and why they are useful, see Folder Comparison Filters.
Any open folder comparisons will update their results list to reflect the new settings when you click OK or Apply to apply filter changes. Files that were hidden during the last comparison, but that subsequently become visible due to a change in the filters, will display a no-entry symbol in the changes column to show that they have not been compared. You can select these files and use the Actions▸Retest Selected Rows menu command to cause the folder comparison to compare them.
Available filters
List
The list shows the available filters and can be used to select which of the filters will be used by folder comparisons via the checkboxes in the Active column. A filter’s name can be changed by double-clicking its row in the Filter column.
[+]
This button creates a new filter.
[-]
This button deletes the currently selected filter.
Patterns for the selected filter
List
This list shows the patterns in the currently selected filter. Click on a row in the Type or Match columns to change the pattern’s properties; double-click a row in the pattern column to edit the pattern.
The order of patterns is important. Merge works downwards through the list to determine whether a file or folder should be included or excluded from a folder comparison. The bottom-most pattern that matches a file or folder determines whether the file or folder will be included or excluded from the folder comparison.
The Type column determines whether the pattern is to include or exclude matching files and/or folders in the folder comparison.
The Match column selects whether the pattern should match only files, only folders, or files and folders.
The pattern text can contain wildcard characters. * will match any sequence of characters excluding path separator (\ or /) characters, ** will match any sequence of characters, and ? will match any single character. You can include multiple pattern texts within the control if you separate them with a semicolon character. If the pattern text contains at least one path separator character then it will be matched against the path of each file or folder, relative to the folders that are being compared.
For example patterns, see Folder Comparison Filters.
[↑]
Click this button to move the currently selected pattern up the list.
[↓]
Click this button to move the currently selected pattern down the list.
[+]
This button creates a new pattern for the currently selected filter.
[-]
This button deletes the currently selected pattern.