Compare component snapshots side-by-side

You can use a component's snapshot history to select two versions and display the differences between them in two side-by-side panes in a read-only viewer. This feature is only available for components that are not binary, map, or workflow components.

Tips and tricks

When you compare snapshots from the Components browser, you can only select snapshots where there are content changes.
- To know if there are content changes, after you select Compare with... and History, look in the Content Changed column.
- If you select a snapshot where there were no content changes, you won't be able to click the Select button.
You can't change any components or snapshots you view as read-only, but you can use Merge As to save merged changes to a new file.
Other ways to compare components:
- To see a side-by-side comparison of a component, follow the steps in Compare component snapshots side-by-side.
- To quickly compare an older snapshot to the current version, follow the steps in Compare a snapshot to the current version.
- To compare a binary or workflow component, take an on-demand snapshot of the most recent version, and then publish that and the historical snapshot to a PDF to see the differences.
  - Create a snapshot on demand
  - Publish from a snapshot
- To compare map components, follow the steps in Compare map snapshots.

To compare component snapshots side-by-side:

Click Components.
In the Folders pane, locate the first component that you want to view.
In the Components pane, right-click a component and then select Details...
On the Component Details screen, select the History tab.
Select the checkbox next to one snapshot with content changes that you want to compare.
On the Selected History pane, click Compare Content.
Results: A comparison of the snapshots opens as read-only in the editor.
Use the read-only viewer to compare snapshots.
In the comparison window, you see:
- A yellow bar at the top telling you comparison details.
- You see the differences between components in the following ways:
  - displays new text you add
  - displays text you deleted
  - displays changes to attributes
To change font size or show or hide differences use the following toolbar options:

To adjust the text size in the editor, click:

to Increase font size

to Decrease font size

to Reset font size

To show or hide attribute changes, click:

to Toggle attribute changes

To show or hide tags, click:

to Toggle tags

To scroll to the changes, click:

to see the Next change

to see the Previous change