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<book id="index">
  <title>Meld Users Manual</title>

  <bookinfo>
    <title>Meld Users Manual</title>

    <authorgroup>
      <author role="maintainer">
        <firstname>Stephen</firstname>

        <surname>Kennedy</surname>

        <email>stevek@gnome.org</email>
      </author>
    </authorgroup>

    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year>

      <holder>Stephen Kennedy</holder>
    </copyright>

    <revhistory>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>Meld Manual 0.9.4</revnumber>
        <date>2004</date>
      </revision>
    </revhistory>


    <releaseinfo>This is version 0.1 of the meld manual, describing meld 0.9.6</releaseinfo>

    <abstract role="description">
      <para>This document describes the use of meld, a graphical diff, merge,
	  and version control tool.</para>
    </abstract>
  </bookinfo>

  <chapter id="introduction">
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <sect1 id="introduction_whatismeld">
      <title>What is meld</title>

      <para>Meld views differences between files and between directories. Meld
      makes it easy to isolate and merge these differences.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="introduction_startingmeld">
      <title>Starting meld</title>

      <sect2>
        <title>Command line arguments</title>

        <variablelist>
          <varlistentry>
            <term><userinput>meld</userinput></term>

            <listitem>
              <para>start meld with the new document dialog</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>

          <varlistentry>
            <term><userinput>meld &#60;file&#62; &#60;file&#62; [file]</userinput></term>

            <listitem>
              <para>start meld with either a two way or three way 
              comparison</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>

          <varlistentry>
            <term><userinput>meld &#60;dir&#62; &#60;dir&#62; [dir]</userinput></term>

            <listitem>
              <para>start meld with either a two way or three way 
              comparison</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>

          <varlistentry>
            <term><userinput>meld &#60;dir|file&#62;</userinput></term>

            <listitem>
              <para>start meld with the source control browser</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>

        <note>
          <para>&#34;&#60;&#62;&#34; surround required arguments, &#34;[]&#34;
          surround optional arguments and &#34;|&#34; indicates a choice.</para>
        </note>

        <note>
          <para>Run <userinput>meld --help</userinput> for a complete list of
          options</para>
        </note>
      </sect2>
    </sect1>
  </chapter>

  <chapter id="filecompare">
    <title>File Comparison</title>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_starting">
      <title>Starting</title>

      <para>To compare files, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem>
      </menuchoice> and select the <guilabel>File Comparison</guilabel> tab. You can compare two or three files.</para>

      <para>For two way comparisons the original is shown in the left pane and
      the modified version in the right pane by convention.</para>

      <para>For three way comparisons, the original is shown in the centre
      pane and the left and right panes show the modified versions. By
      convention we put the locally modified file in the right pane.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_summary">
      <title>Change Summary</title>

      <para>The location of the changes is summarised in the window margins at
      the far left and right. By default green marks insertions and deletions
      and blue marks changes.</para>

      <para>You can jump to an individual change by clicking in the margin or
      using the scrollbar.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_detailed">
      <title>Detailed View</title>

      <para>Detailed differences are shown in the text and central pane.
      Inserted text is shown with a solid background. Lines containing changes
      are marked with a light background with the individual changes
      highlighted with a stronger colour.</para>

      <para>The area between each file shows where each change occurs in the
      other file. You can scroll through the changes by rolling the mouse
      wheel over this area or with keyboard shortcuts <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>D</keycap></keycombo>,
      <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>E</keycap></keycombo>.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_editing">
      <title>Editing</title>

      <para>You can edit the files as you would in a normal text editor. The
      differences will update automatically. Use <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>F</keycap></keycombo> to
      search and <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>G</keycap></keycombo> to repeat the last search.</para>

      <para>You can also apply changes by clicking the merge buttons (&#34;<guiicon>-&#62;</guiicon>&#34;
      and &#34;<guiicon>&#60;-</guiicon>&#34;). Holding <keycap>Shift</keycap>
      allows blocks to be deleted. Holding <keycap>Control</keycap> allows the
      current change to be inserted before or after the other change.</para>

      <para>You can apply all the changes from a given file by
      right clicking a text pane and choosing
      <guimenuitem>Copy all left</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Copy all right</guimenuitem>.
      You can also launch an external editor from this menu. Configure the
      external editor in <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_filtering">
      <title>Filtering</title>

      <para>You can ignore certain types of differences in order to locate
      important differences. All these settings are available in the Text Filters section of the <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> dialog.</para>

      <sect2>
        <title>Regular Expressions</title>

        <para>When comparing files, each selected regular expression is run in
        turn over each line of input. Anything matching the expression is
        removed from the input.<note><para>See the python re module for more
        information on regular expressions</para></note><note><para>Differences
        are computed line-by-line so multiline regulare expressions will
        likely have unintended consequences.</para></note></para>
      </sect2>

      <sect2>
        <title>Blank Lines</title>

        <para>Changes which insert or remove blank lines can be ignored. This
        option is most useful in conjunction with one or more regular
        expression filters.</para>
      </sect2>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_saving">
      <title>Saving</title>

      <para>When you have unsaved changes, a disk icon will appear beside the
      file name of the changed file. The tab label and window title also have
      an asterix after the file name.</para>

      <para>To save a file, choose
      <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Save</guimenuitem></menuchoice>,
      press <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>S</keycap></keycombo>, 
      or press the toolbar save
      button. All of these save the currently focussed file (the file
      containing the edit cursor).</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="filecompare_status">
      <title>Status Bar</title>

      <para>The status bar shows the cursor location (line and column) and
      also progress messages as files are initially loaded and compared.</para>
    </sect1>
  </chapter>

  <chapter id="foldercompare">
    <title>Folder Comparison</title>

    <sect1 id="foldercompare_starting">
      <title>Starting</title>

      <para>To compare directories, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select the <guilabel>Directory Comparison</guilabel> tab. You can compare two or three
      directories.</para>

      <para>For two way comparisons the original is shown in the left pane and
      the modified version in the right pane by convention.</para>

      <para>For three way comparisons, the original is shown in the centre
      pane and the left and right panes show the modified versions. By
      convention we put the locally modified file in the right pane.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="foldercompare_summary">
      <title>Change Summary</title>

      <para>Similarly to the file comparison, the window margins mark file
      deletions, creations and modifications.</para>

      <para>You can jump to an individual change by clicking in the margin or
      using the scrollbar.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="foldercompare_detailed">
      <title>Detailed View</title>

      <para>Modified files are highlighted with red, created files with green
      and deleted files with a strikethrough. See also <xref
      linkend="dir_content_filtering" /></para>

      <para>The file or folder most recently modified has a red dot
      superimposed on its icon. More detailed information such as file
      permission and modification time can be seen in the status bar when a
      file is selected.</para>

      <para>Use the mouse or the the cursor keys <keycap>Up</keycap>,
      <keycap>Down</keycap>, <keycap>Left</keycap> and <keycap>Right</keycap>
      to navigate. Additionally <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>D</keycap></keycombo> and
      <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>E</keycap></keycombo> move to the next and previous modification
      respectively.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="foldercompare_editing">
      <title>Editing</title>

      <para>Activate an item with double click or
      <keycap>Return</keycap> to start an individual file comparison.</para>

      <para>Additional options are available from a
      right click context menu.</para>

      <para>Use Shift+Click and
      Control+Click to select multiple items.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="foldercompare_filtering">
      <title>Filtering</title>

      <para>Often the initial comparison will contain too much spurious
      information. You can use filters to isolate the differences which are
      important to you.</para>

      <sect2>
        <title>Explicit Hiding</title>

        <para>Use the toolbar button to hide an item (and all subitems for
        directories).</para>
      </sect2>

      <sect2>
        <title>Case Sensitivity</title>

        <para>By default filename comparisons are case sensitive. Use the
        toolbar button to toggle case sensitivty of filenames.</para>
      </sect2>

      <sect2>
        <title>State Filtering</title>

        <para>All items have a state which is one of:
        <itemizedlist><listitem><para>Modified (there is some content
        difference between files which are present)</para></listitem><listitem><para>New
        (there is no content difference between present files, but the file is
        missing from at least one directory)</para></listitem><listitem><para>Identical
        (all files have equal content and are all present)</para></listitem></itemizedlist></para>

        <para>Use the toolbar buttons to control which items are shown by
        their state.<note><para>In the current version, only files are
        filtered by state. Directories are always shown.</para></note></para>
      </sect2>

      <sect2>
        <title>Name Filtering</title>

        <para>Meld can hide certain filename patterns from the comparison
        using the toolbar buttons. Customise the file patterns that 
        are hidden in the File Filters section of the <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> dialog.</para>
      </sect2>

      <sect2 id="dir_content_filtering">
        <title>Content Filtering</title>

        <para>If differences between files exist, but all differences match
        the active regular expressions specified in Text
        Filters section of the <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> dialog, then the filename is not highlighted in red, but is
        insted italicised in regular font.</para>
      </sect2>
    </sect1>
  </chapter>

  <chapter id="sourcecontrol">
    <title>Source Control</title>

    <sect1 id="sourcecontrol_starting">
      <title>Starting</title>

      <para>To browse a working copy of a source control repository, 
      choose <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select the <guilabel>Version Control Browser</guilabel> tab.</para>

      <para>The browser is used for examining and commiting or reverting local
      changes. It is not intended to be a complete source control client.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="sourcecontrol_filtering">
      <title>Filtering</title>

      <para>The browser can filter on four states. To show or hide all files in a particular state, select or deselect the corresponding toggle button in the toolbar.</para>
      
      <variablelist>
      	<varlistentry><term><guibutton>Normal</guibutton></term>
        	<listitem><para>The file has not changed since it was checked out or committed.</para></listitem>
      	</varlistentry>
      	<varlistentry><term><guibutton>Modified</guibutton></term>
        	<listitem><para>The file has been locally changed, added, or removed.</para></listitem>
      	</varlistentry>
      	<varlistentry><term><guibutton>Non VC</guibutton></term>
        	<listitem><para>The file is non-version controlled: it exists locally but was not checked out from a repository.</para></listitem>
      	</varlistentry>   
      	<varlistentry><term><guibutton>Ignored</guibutton></term>
        	<listitem><para>The file is explicitly ignored e.g. though a <filename>.cvsignore</filename> file.</para></listitem>
      	</varlistentry>         	
      </variablelist>
            
      <para>The <guibutton>Flatten</guibutton> toggle displays the directory
      listing as a plain list, showing all subdirectory contents together.
      This makes it easier to see several changes scattered in several directories or in
      a large tree. This is especially useful in conjunction with only the modified
      filter active.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="sourcecontrol_viewing">
      <title>Viewing Differences</title>

      <para>Activating an unmodified file opens it in the file viewer.
      Activating a modified file opens up a two way diff to examine your
      changes.</para>

      <para>You can examine many changes at once using
      Shift+Click and Control+Click
      to select multiple items.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="sourcecontrol_changes">
      <title>Making Changes</title>

      <para>The toolbar contains commands to perform the most common source
      control operations. These operations are also accessible through a
      context menu.</para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="sourcecontrol_console">
      <title>Viewing Console</title>

      <para>At the bottom of the source control window is an expander
      containing all the source control operations and their output. Click the
      expander bar to toggle between hiding and showing the console.</para>
    </sect1>
  </chapter>

  <chapter id="shortcutkeys">
    <title>Shortcut Keys</title>

    <para>For more on shortcut keys, see the <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:user-guide?keyboard-skills">Desktop User Guide</ulink>.</para>

    <!-- ===== File shortcuts ===== -->
	<table frame="topbot">
	  <title>Shortcuts for working with files and comparisons</title>
	  <tgroup cols="2" colsep="0" rowsep="0">
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="50*"/>
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="50*"/>
        <thead>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry colname="COLSPEC0">
              <para>Shortcut</para></entry>
            <entry colname="COLSPEC1" align="left">
              <para>Description</para></entry>
          </row>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>N</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Start a new comparison.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>S</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Save the current document to disk.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Shift</keycap><keycap>S</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Save the current document with a new filename.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>W</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Close the current comparison.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Q</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Quit <application>Meld</application>.</para></entry>
          </row>
        </tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>

    <!-- ===== Edit shortcuts ===== -->
	<table frame="topbot">
	  <title>Shortcuts for editing documents</title>
	  <tgroup cols="2" colsep="0" rowsep="0">
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="50*"/>
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="50*"/>
        <thead>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry colname="COLSPEC0">
              <para>Shortcut</para></entry>
            <entry colname="COLSPEC1" align="left">
              <para>Description</para></entry>
          </row>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Z</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Undo the last action.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Shift</keycap><keycap>Z</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Redo the last undone action.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>X</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Cut the selected text or region and place it on the clipboard.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>C</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Copy the selected text or region onto the clipboard.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>V</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Paste the contents of the clipboard.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>F</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Find a string.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>G</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Find the next instance of the string.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>D</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Go to the next difference.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>E</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Go to the previous difference.</para></entry>
          </row>
        </tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>

    <!-- ===== View shortcuts ===== -->
	<table frame="topbot">
	  <title>Shortcuts for view settings</title>
	  <tgroup cols="2" colsep="0" rowsep="0">
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="50*"/>
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="50*"/>
        <thead>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry colname="COLSPEC0">
              <para>Shortcut</para></entry>
            <entry colname="COLSPEC1" align="left">
              <para>Description</para></entry>
          </row>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Escape</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Stop the current comparison.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>R</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Refresh the current comparison.</para></entry>
          </row>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Shift</keycap><keycap>R</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Reload the current comparison.</para></entry>
          </row>
        </tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>

    <!-- ===== Help shortcuts ===== -->
	<table frame="topbot">
	  <title>Shortcuts for help</title>
	  <tgroup cols="2" colsep="0" rowsep="0">
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="50*"/>
        <colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="50*"/>
        <thead>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry colname="COLSPEC0">
              <para>Shortcut</para></entry>
            <entry colname="COLSPEC1" align="left">
              <para>Description</para></entry>
          </row>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <row valign="top">
            <entry>
              <keycombo>
                <keycap>F1</keycap>
              </keycombo>
            </entry>
            <entry><para>Open <application>Meld</application>'s user manual.</para></entry>
          </row>
        </tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>

  </chapter>

</book>
