PowerXChange.com: It's just a matter of having the right tools.

MadeToCompare XT looks for textual differences between two versions of a story and visualizes those differences in a synoptic view. Both versions of the text are shown in columns side by side with the differences between them detailed in a third column. The columns are synchronized paragraph by paragraph so that the two stories are consistently parallel.

MadeToCompare XT constitutes a powerful tool which combines ease of use with the following features:
· comparison of a textual changes at each different editing stage;
· save comparisons to give a complete audit trail of editorial changes;
· clear visualization of text changes for fast checking;
· faster proof reading since only the changed portions need be re-read.

System requirements (back to top)

MadeToCompare XT requires QuarkXPress 3.3x or 4.0x for Apple Macintosh (680x0 or PowerPC machines) and System 7 or newer. It runs native with QuarkXPress for PowerPC. You may need to increase its memory allocation if longer texts are to be compared. The extra memory needed is about five times the size of one text: e.g. for a story of about 100,000 characters, an additional allocation of 500k is recommended.

Though MadeToCompare XT will run an any Macintosh that can run QuarkXPress 3.3x or 4.0x, a fast 680x0 or a PowerPC machine will give the best execution times. Execution time itself not only depends on the size of the texts to be compared but also on the extent of the differences between them.

Installation (back to top)

MadeToCompare XT should be copied into the “XTension” folder inside the Quark XPress application folder. When QuarkXPress is next launched, MadeToCompare XT will load and a new menu item “Text comparison” will appear in the “Utilities” menu.

Copy “MadeToCompare XT” into the XTension folder inside the QuarkXPress application folder

When MadeToCompare XT is loaded it will install a new menu item “Text comparison…” in the “Utilities” menu

Running a text comparison (back to top)

Before launching a text comparison it is necessary to select the two stories to be compared. The two texts may reside within the same document or in two different documents.

To compare two texts within the same XPress document… (back to top)

Select the Item tool from the tool bar, click on the first text box to be compared, hold down the Shift key and click on the second text box to be compared. (If you want to compare chains of text boxes, you only need to click on one of the boxes within a chain to select the whole text chain.)

Comparing two texts in the same XPress document. Note: Make sure that the Item tool is activated — then click on one text box first and afterwards shift-click on the second text box.

Having selected two text boxes within the same XPress document, the menu item “Text comparison” will become enabled. Choose this menu item to launch the text comparison.

MadeToCompare XT will automatically generate a new QuarkXPress document divided into three columns. The text that was selected first will appear in the left column of the resulting synoptical view, while the Shift-selected text will show up in the middle column.

To compare two texts from different XPress documents… (back to top)

Open the two documents containing the texts to be compared. Select the Contents tool in each document and click in each of the stories you wish to compare.

It doesn’t matter where you click inside the text: the complete story or text chain will be compared.

Comparing two texts from two different XPress documents. Note: Make sure that the Contents tool is activated — then click in the text in the text box in the first document and afterwards click in the text in text box the second document.

When the text boxes are active in both documents, the menu item “Text comparison” is enabled in the “Utilities” menu. Choose this menu item to launch the text comparison.

MadeToCompare XT will automatically generate a new QuarkXPress document divided into three columns. The text that was selected first will appear in the left column of the resulting synoptical view, while the second text selected will show in the middle column.

Process and result of a text comparison (back to top)

During the text comparison itself, MadeToCompare XT keeps you informed in a progress information window.

Progress information during text comparison displayed by MadeToCompare XT

The result of the text comparison will be displayed in a new QuarkXPress document divided into three text columns over one or more pages. This document has the standard default name of “Document 1”. If you want to keep a complete audit trail of all changes made at each stage, you can save this document using an appropriate naming convention.

The first text appears in the left column with the second text in the middle column. All the differences between the two version are detailed in the right column. If the resulting document has more than one page, the respective columns are linked from page to page.

Notation of differences (back to top)

For the sake of simplicity let’s assume that the text in the first column is the older version of the story and the text appearing in the middle is the newer version.

Paragraph synchronization (back to top)

To ensure maximum legibility, the three columns in the comparative document are synchronized horizontally paragraph by paragraph. Within each column, the paragraphs are separated from each other by a dotted line.

Columns in the resulting document are synchronized paragraph by paragraph, borders between paragraphs being indicated by dotted lines

Text changes (back to top)

Wherever a piece of text has changed between the old and the new version, the changed text will be underlined, and the differences themselves will be listed in the righthand column. The old text will be followed by an arrow and the new version of this text. Longer portions of text are listed in a shortened notation (example: “Beginning of long modification[...]end of long modified text” ).

A portion of text that has changed between the two versions will be underlined and listed in the third column

Text deletions (back to top)

If a piece of text has been removed in the new version, this piece of text will be underlined in the old version in the left column, and a bold “X” will be inserted in the new version at the deletion point. Furthermore the deletion is listed in the differences column on the right, showing the piece of text from the old text version and an arrow followed by ... “nothing”.

Text that has been removed from the old version will be underlined in the old version and indicated by heavy ‘X’ in the new version as well as listed in the third column

Text insertions (back to top)

If a piece of text has been inserted in the new version this piece of text will be underlined in the new version in the middle column, while at the corresponding insertion point in the old text an insertion icon will appear. Also, this insertion will be listed in the differences column, showing up as an arrow preceded by a blank space and followed by the piece of text inserted in the new text.

Text that has been inserted in the new version will be underlined in the new version and indicated by an insertion icon in the old version as well as listed in the third column

Moved paragraphs (back to top)

If whole paragraphs have been moved to a different position within the story, the following visualization will occur. The facing paragraph areas for the respective paragraphs will contain an insertion icon (old version in the left column) or a deletion icon (middle column with new text). The differences column on the right will contain a pair of numbers in brackets, separated by a colon. The first number indicates the relative position of the moved paragraph in the old version, and the second number tells the relative position of this paragraph in the new version. Within a text the second paragraph would be regarded as being at relative position 2, the third at relative position 3 and so on. Changes between the two versions of a moved paragraph are only underlined at the position of the paragraph in the new text.

At the position of the moved paragraph in the new version any differences inside the paragraph are indicated in the middle column — by means of deletion icons or underlines — and listed in the differences column.

This process only applies where a complete paragraph is moved; it does not apply to smaller units of text which will simply show as insertions or deletions within a paragraph.

Moved paragraphs: Numbers in brackets indicate their old and their new relative position. As moving a paragraph can also be seen as first deleting it at the old position and then inserting it at the new position, MadeToCompare displays an insertion icon and a deletion icon at the respective positions

Moved paragraphs: Here not only a paragraph has been moved, but also some text in the paragraph has been altered which is indicated by underlining the corresponding portion of text in the new text as well as by listing the difference in the third column at the new position of the moved paragraph

Anchored text and picture boxes (back to top)

If a story contains anchored boxes — either anchored text boxes or anchored picture boxes — these will be taken into account for the text comparison.

When MadeToCompare XT encounters an anchored text box, it shows the contents of that box in the main body of the text but enclosed between {curly braces}

In the resulting comparison document the anchored text box will be shown as text inside curly braces

In the resulting comparison document the anchored picture box will be shown as some descriptive text inside curly braces

Similarly, anchored picture boxes are represented by the insertion of a string of image information between curly braces; e.g. {anchored picture box: Type: EPSF File name: ‘SomeGraphic.EPS’ Last modified: 10/08/96 at 12:46:27 pm}. If information about the picture is unavailable — perhaps because it is a PICT that has been pasted in — the text will say {anchored picture box: Type: PICT (pasted in)}.

Empty anchored boxes will be converted to {anchored text box: EMPTY} or {anchored picture box: EMPTY}.

Setting up and using the resulting comparison document (back to top)

The document created by MadeToPrint XT to display the results of a text comparison is an ordinary QuarkXPress document and can be saved or printed like any other document but cannot be edited.

You can create a complete ‘audit trail’ showing what changes have been made to a story at each stage by saving the comparison document with an appropriate naming convention such as “Story.Rev 5”.

The appearance of the comparison document can be easily customized since MadeToCompare XT uses a template called “MadeToCompare default” which is located inside the same folder as MadeToCompare XT itself. (If it does not exist, it is automatically created by MadeToCompare XT). This document can be edited or replaced by another XPress document with the same name.

Customizing the appearance of the resulting comparison documents: Modifying the first page in “MadeToCompare default”

When creating the comparison document, MadeToCompare XT uses the following attributes:
· page size;
· general settings for a document, like visibility of guides, base line grid or invisible characters;
· style sheet “Normal” (used to format the differences listed in the right column;
· margins and gutter for the first user-definable master page (usually master page “A”) to control where the three columns are placed;
· the elements on Master Page A;
· elements on the first document page will remain unchanged.

By changing these attributes, your comparison documents can be extensively customized.

Customizing the appearance of the resulting comparison documents: Modifying master page “A” in “MadeToCompare default” by adding a text box in the lower right area with a page number (command–3)

Further Informations

Limitations for demo version (back to top)

The demo version does not compare more than a third of the texts if their length exceeds 2000 characters. There are not any other limitations while MadeToCompare XT is loaded.

Questions · Proposals · Support (back to top)

In case you have any questions or propasals or need support please feel free to contact your integrator or callas software info@callas.de directly.

MadeToCompare XT for Quark Publishing System/QuarkCopyDesk (back to top)

MadeToCompare XT speeds up the editorial department

Comparison of different versions of an article is an often required, though in many cases not available functionality for a copy editor. With MadeToCompare XT this functionality becomes available for the predominant desktop computer based editorial system, the Quark Publishing System.

It is a technical innovation that in several contexts in the editorial workflow will provide security and speed.

Examples for the use of MadeToCompare XT are:
· the Editor in Chief checks the version supposed to go to press against the last version that he proof read;
· the documentation department compares all changes in an article against the previous, proof read version to make sure that all corrections have been entered and also they easily can check new text parts, if they need verification;
· editorial secretary members can check if they indeed have entered all the corrections that have been indicated;
· the editor can easily communicate to the author of an article all the changes to the text that have been introduced;
· the final reviewer compares the version that goes to press against the most recent, completely reviewed version.

The purpose of any text comparison tool thus is to achieve a higher level of control in the editorial workflow and to – especially when the deadline apporaches – speed up steps in the workflow.

In order to provide the best possible results in any environment, the output of the text comparison is shown in a synoptical view. It is important to understand, that text editing in the current article always remains available.

System requirements (back to top)

MadeToCompare XT works with QuarkCopyDesk version 1.12 or newer/2.08 or newer under Quark Publishing System 1.12/2.08 or newer.

It runs on every Macintosh where QuarkCopyDesk will run.

Installation (back to top)

Copy MadeToCompare XT to your “CopyDesk XTensions” folder inside your “QuarkCopyDesk” folder

When QuarkCopyDesk is started it will automatically load MadeToCompare XT. You will then find a new menu entry named “Version comparison…” under the “Utilities” menu.

We deliberately avoided introducing a keyboard short-cut for MadeToCompare XT as it might conflict with other approaches to keyboard short cuts. Make use of one of the popular utilities for user definable short cuts that install directly into the system and then are available for other applications as well. Your system administrator will provide you with the necessary guidance.

Using MadeToCompare XT (back to top)

In order to compare an article to an older revision of this article, make sure you have the current version already checked out and opened. The article may be displayed in any of the available view modes. In our example we use an article named “Andre Brelan”.

Menu entry “Version comparison” (back to top)

With the menu “Version comparison” the “Version information window” is opened. In our example the current version has the version number “4”. This version is to be compared with version number “3” (see Fig. 22). To be sure which article version to use for a comaprison you can refer to the information about respective status, user as well as date and time of last modification to that version.

A mouse click in the version list will select the desired version, and with pressing “Compare” the text comparison is started. Three windows will be opeened: In the left window the old version of the article is displayed. This version cannot be edited. In the middle window the current version of the article can be seen. The text can be edited. The right window displays the differences between the two versions of the article. The text in the three windows is synchronised at every paragraph border. If text is moved up or down in any of the windows, the text display in the remaining two windows will move accordingly.

Quit version comparison (back to top)

The version comparison usually will be finished by using the menu entry “Quit version comparison”.

This will close the windows with the old version and the differences. The make up in the current version window will be removed. This removal will also happen whenever text is copied or saved thus making sure that text never gets disturbed.

Further Informations

Limitations for demo version (back to top)

The demo version of MadeToCompare XT does not restrict its functionality in any way, but it is time limited (usually six weeks). We do not impose any annoying limitations to the functionality of the XTension itself or to the way QuarkCopyDesk/QPS work while testing our XTension

Important notes for testing MadeToCompare XT (back to top)

1. Switching to WYSIWYG mode while comparing versions is possible though not recommended as the display then becomes useless.
2. Though text in the old version window cannot be edited it is possible to select text and copy it into the new version window, e.g. in order to reinsert some text that had been removed.
3. If any window is closed by means of the close button in the top left edge of a window you are going to be asked if you want to save changes to the document. This also happens if you never changed any text –this is due to the fact that MadeToCompare XT temporarily changes the text for displaying differences and providing synchronisation. In any case these temporarily introduced changes are also removed if text is copied or saved.
4. Changes in hyphenation are not recorded.
5. Changes in text formatting are not recorded.

Notes on testing MadeToCompare XT (back to top)

Of course there may occur situations where the display of differences looks awkward, especially when there are not enough similarities between the compared texts. Nevertheless you should consider that in this case the two texts might be too different from each other than is suitable for a comparison in general.

Questions · Proposals · Support (back to top)

In case you have any questions or propasals or need support please feel free to contact your integrator or callas software info@callas.de directly.

We hope that we were able to contribute to the quality of your work.

Disclaimer (back to top)

Quark, Inc. obliges XTension developers to include the following disclaimer in the XTension's documentation:

Quark Inc.

QUARK, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY, OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. QUARK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF THE DISTRIBUTORS, RETAILERS AND DEVELOPERS OF THE ENCLOSED SOFTWARE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, IN NO EVENT SHALL QUARK, INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN ANY WAY RELATING TO THE USE OR ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE ENCLOSED SOFTWARE. QUARK, INC.'S LIABILITY SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED FIFTY DOLLARS ($50.00).

THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND/OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTALOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IS NOT ALLOWED IN SOME AREAS, SO THESE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

MadeToCompare XT (back to top)

Version 1.0 for QuarkXPress 3.3x and 4.0x (Macintosh)

Version 1.2 for Quark CopyDesk 1.12/Quark Publishing 1.12 Version 2.0 for Quark CopyDesk 2.0/Quark Publishing 2.08 (or newer) © 1995–2000 by callas software gmbh, Berlin All rights reserved Idea: Helmuth Maidl and Olaf Drümmer Implemented by: Olaf Drümmer, Ulrich Frotscher, Michael Fielitz, Axel Emanuel Quality assurance: Olaf Drümmer Manual: Helmuth Maidl, Olaf Drümmer, Ulrich Frotscher, Andreas Arcularius