Getting started comparing folders

The main parts of a folder comparison are the trees showing the folders you're comparing. You can easily move around these comparisons to find changes that you're interested in. When you select a file or folder, more detailed information is given in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Pressing Enter on a selected file, or double-clicking any file in the tree will open a side-by-side file comparison of the files in a new tab, but this will only work properly if they're text files!

There are bars on the right-hand side of the window that show you a simple colored summary of the comparison results. Each file or folder in the comparison corresponds to a small section of these bars, though Meld doesn't show Same files so that it's easier to see any actually important differences. You can click anywhere on this bar to jump straight to that place in the comparison.

You can jump between changed files (that is, any files/folders that are not classified as being identical) with the previous and next change buttons in the toolbar.

You can use the Left and Right arrow keys to move between the folders you're comparing. This is useful so that you can select an individual file for copying or deletion.

Each file or folder in a tree has its own state, telling you how it differed from its corresponding files/folders. The possible states are:

You can filter out files based on these states, for example, to show only files that have been Modified. You can read more about this in File differences filtering.

The icons in some rows have emblems added to them to show additional information. Note that these icons may change depending on your icon theme, so these descriptions are only a guide.