Compare two texts and see what changed

How a line-by-line comparison works

Text Studio looks for the longest series of lines that both versions share in the same order, the idea classic diff tools are built on. Those lines are shown plain. Every other line is marked: − if it is only in your text, + if it is only in the other version.

• An edited line shows twice: the old one with −, then the new one with +.
• A moved line shows as removed where it was and added where it went.
• Unchanged lines stay in the list, so you read the whole text in order with the changes marked inside it.

Lines must match exactly to count as the same. A trailing space, a curly quote where there was a straight one, or a single capital letter is enough to mark a line as changed. Empty lines are lines too, so an extra gap between two paragraphs shows up as a row of its own.

Made for lists, code and data

Because the unit is a whole line, comparing shines where each line means something on its own: configuration files, code, CSV exports, word lists, translation files, checklists and subtitles. A changed setting or one new row stands out at once. In a subtitle file, the timing lines show exactly which captions were moved.

Prose is harder. A paragraph is usually a single long line, so one changed comma marks the whole paragraph with − and +, and you read the pair to find the change. Text Studio does not highlight the changed words inside a line.

When the two versions come from different places, tidy each the same way before comparing: Collapse extra spaces and Straighten quotes in Clean remove differences nobody cares about, so only the real changes are left marked.

Comparing two files

The left side is Text Studio's page itself, and the panel takes a paste, so comparing two files takes one extra step:

• Open the other version with Open and press Copy all.
• Open your own version.
• Press Compare and paste into the panel with Ctrl V.

Any file Text Studio opens works: .txt, .md, .csv, .json, .xml, .html, .yaml, .ini, .srt and the rest. The panel keeps what you pasted while you open files and edit your own side. A version that arrived in a chat or an email can go straight into the panel without being saved as a file first.

Comparing two exports of the same list, where the rows may come out in a different order each time? Sort each version with A to Z before you bring them together, so a row that only moved does not show up as removed and added.

Other ways on Windows

Command Prompt has fc, short for file compare: fc old.txt new.txt prints the blocks of lines that differ between two files, and its /c and /w switches ignore capitals and runs of spaces, two things Text Studio's comparison always counts. PowerShell's Compare-Object lists the lines found in only one of two inputs. For Word documents, the Compare command on Word's Review tab marks changes word by word as tracked changes, and programmers have diff built into Git and their code editors.

Text Studio sits in between: no command to remember, one version can come straight from the clipboard, and the whole text stays readable with the changes marked in place. It shows differences rather than merging them, so when you want a line from the other version, copy it across by hand.