The Review Materials screen or Diff Viewer is where most of the reviewing takes place. It shows which exact changes were made to the review materials, how a file has changed from one revision to another.

Diff Viewer includes a number of configuration and display options that may change depending on the specific type of file that is being reviewed.

The appearance of the Diff Viewer when reviewing source code files

Click the image to enlarge it.

The Diff Viewer is divided into a number of sections:

Chat Pane and associated toolbar options
Diff Viewer Toolbar (Which includes the Display Options pane)
Diff Viewer Header
Diff Viewer Content (The actual content under review)

Note:

The Diff Viewer opens in the same window and tab, when launched from the Review Screen. To open it in a new window, you can Shift+click the link.

Chat Pane

On the left of the main Diff Viewer page, there is a pane for chat threads. This pane allows you to add both global and content-specific comments and defects to the document you are reviewing. Comments may hold any information concerning the review: a question, a clarification, a remark, an encouragement, whatever else. Defects indicate a problem that needs to be fixed. To learn more about global and content-specific comments and defects, see Types of Review Comments and Defects.

At the top of the chat pane, you will find a series of buttons that control whether or not certain types of comments appear in full or in collapsed states (to save viewing space). Note that defects, count as unread comments until they are accepted/marked read.

The first three icons control whether defects appear collapsed or expanded in the chat panel. The red bug controls the display for open defects, the green bug controls the display for fixed defects and the blue bug controls the display for defects tracked externally.

The next four icons control the display of non-defect conversations. The white conversation bubble controls the display for all comments. The yellow hazard sign controls the display for unread comments. The green checkmark controls the display for conversations that have been marked accepted. The pushpin icon controls whether to display markers for coordinate comments within word-processing documents, presentations, PDF documents, images and vector graphics. The user icon with a drop-down specifies whether to display comments and defects from all participants of just from the selected participant.

The next two icons allow navigating to the previous or next comment, defect or change within the current document.

To learn how to make conversation during the review, see Types of Review Comments and Defects and Review Chats, Comments, and Defects topics.

Diff Viewer Toolbar

The toolbar at the top of the Diff Viewer includes options for altering the display of information and navigation through documents within the review.

Back to Review Screen	Returns back to Review Screen.
File Navigation	Navigate to the previous or next file in the review, respectively.
File Name	Displays the name of current file.
Orientation	Specifies whether the Diff Viewer displays in side-by-side mode or over/under mode. When enabled, Before and After panes are displayed over/under one another. When disabled, Before and After panes are displayed side-by-side. This button is displayed only for text-based formats and images.
Display Order	Determines which pane is considered the 'After' pane, for the purposes of highlighting additions and deletions. When enabled, the After pane is the leftmost panel in side-by-side mode and the uppermost panel in over/under mode When disabled, the After pane is the rightmost panel in side-by-side mode and the undermost panel in over/under mode
	Toggles between adding coordinate comments and panning the file contents. When enabled, a single left click within a file contents will add a coordinate comment at specified position. When disabled, dragging the mouse pointer will pan the contents of the file. This button is displayed only for word-processing documents, presentations, PDF documents, images and vector graphics.
	Toggles between zooming and scrolling the file contents. When enabled, rotating mouse wheel will zoom the file contents in and out. When disabled, rotating mouse wheel will scroll the file contents up and down. This button is displayed only for word-processing documents, presentations, PDF documents, images and vector graphics.
	Locks mouse action for both panes. When enabled, both Before and After panes will react on mouse actions (panning, scrolling, zooming) simultaneously. When disabled, mouse actions (panning, scrolling, zooming) will affect only the pane a mouse hovers on. This button is displayed only for word-processing documents, presentations, PDF documents, images and vector graphics.
Zoom Level	Specifies the zoom level for both Before and After panes. You can set the scale to various percentages, Page Width or Full Page. This button is displayed only for word-processing documents, presentations, PDF documents, images and vector graphics.
Search	Performs a full-text search within the current document. Type the desired text in and press `Enter`. This button is displayed only for Word processing and PDF documents, presentations and vector graphics.
External Diff Viewer	Launches the current document review in an external diff viewer.
Download Diff	Downloads a Diff file of the current document.
Display Options	Opens the Display Options panel which controls how Diff Viewer should display various data. This button is displayed only for text-based formats and for Excel, Word and PDF documents.
Help	Opens the help menu with descriptions of color-code legend, keyboard shortcuts, and links to documentation.

Diff Viewer Header

The content of the header varies depending on the type of file being reviewed, current revision selection mode, and content orientation.

Diff Viewer header in simple revision selection mode

Diff Viewer header in advanced revision selection mode

Display changes

Allows to select which file revisions (if available) will be compared.

The available options are:

All - Compare the current revision of a file against its base revision - that is, a state of file before any changes related to current review have been made. For pre-commit reviews, base revision is the revision that you checked out from the repository. For post-commit reviews, base revision is the revision that precedes your commit.
First vs Last - Compare the most recent revision of a file against its first revision that was uploaded during this review.
Branch only - Compare the current revision of a file against its base revision excluding changes merged from other branches.
Last commit - Compare the current revision of a file and its previous revision.
Accepted - Compare the current revision of a file against its latest accepted revision. During the review, participants may accept some particular revisions of a file to denote that they agree with the changes. Uploading a further revision of that file clears the Accepted mark. If a participant has not accepted any revision yet, then compares the current revision of a file against its base revision.
Commits - Compare the most recent revision against any arbitrary revision chosen in the Select revision drop-down.

The Branch only mode may produce slightly different output depending on whether the review was created manually or via repository integration. In reviews created manually it is not always possible to filter-out merge changes, so sometimes they still could be displayed. Reviews created via integration have broader access to the repository and thus can exclude merge changes more thoroughly.

Show Advanced Mode

Toggles between simple and advanced modes of revision selection.

Select revision

Displays the current revision selection mode, or the file revision to be compared when the Display changes selector is set to Commits. Each file revision is identified according to the Revision Caption Pattern setting and may include provider type, creation time, item identifier and description.

After

Visible in advanced revision selection mode.

Specifies the file revision displayed in the 'After' pane. Each file revision is identified by its SHA-1 hash value. Additionally, the file folder icon adjacent to this field can be used to download the selected revision of the file.

When you select the same file revision in 'Before' and 'After' drop-downs, Diff Viewer will unite the 'Before' and 'After' panes. In this case, added file revisions will have green background, while removed file revisions will have red background.

Before

Visible in advanced revision selection mode.

Specifies the file revision displayed in the 'Before' pane. Each file revision is identified by its SHA-1 hash value. Additionally, the file folder icon adjacent to this field can be used to download the selected revision of the file.

When you select the same file revision in 'Before' and 'After' drop-downs, Diff Viewer will unite the 'Before' and 'After' panes. In this case, added file revisions will have green background, while removed file revisions will have red background.

File revisions in Select revision, Before and After drop-down lists are further identified by an icon which appears adjacent to the revision number denoting:

Icon shape:		Square shape indicates that file was uploaded from any source control system (within changelist, commit, diff and so on).
Icon shape:		Circle shape indicates that file was uploaded from local storage without any versioning.
Icon color:		Green color indicates that file was added.
		Blue color indicates means that file was modified.
		Red color indicates that file was removed.
Icon checkmark:		Unchecked indicates that file change was not accepted yet.
Icon checkmark:		Checked indicates that file change was accepted.

Display Options Panel

The Display Options panel contains various options that determine what data is displayed by the Diff Viewer and how it is displayed. This panel is available only for text-based formats and for Excel, Word and PDF documents.

The list of panel option varies, depending on a format of the current file:

Text-based formats

Wrap Lines

Controls whether lines of text are wrapped to the width of the pane.

Note:

When Wrap Lines is not selected, an option will appear at the bottom of the text section to enable/disable synchronized scrolling of the panes.

Syntax Coloring

Controls whether syntax-specific coloring is used, when supported.

Ignore Whitespace

Controls whether white-spaces are taken into account when showing differences.

This setting affects how line differences are displayed in Diff Viewer. Once enabled, line numbers and conversation position displayed in Diff Viewer may vary from line numbers and conversation position displayed in Review Screen and reports.

Ignore Capitalization

Controls whether capitalization is taken into account when showing differences.

This setting affects how line differences are displayed in Diff Viewer. Once enabled, line numbers and conversation position displayed in Diff Viewer may vary from line numbers and conversation position displayed in Review Screen and reports.

Ignore Sequence Number

Controls whether COBOL sequence numbers are taken into account when showing differences.

This setting affects how line differences are displayed in Diff Viewer. Once enabled, line numbers and conversation position displayed in Diff Viewer may vary from line numbers and conversation position displayed in Review Screen and reports.

Skip Unchanged

Determines whether large blocks of unchanged content is displayed. These gaps will appear, in the Diff Viewer as 'Skipping X lines...' and will include the two links labeled 'More', which will allow you to see more of this skipped content.

Difference

Enables highlighting of additions, deletions and differences in the viewer.

Context Lines

Defines the number of lines to show before and after the actual changes so that you can better understand the context of changes performed.

Tab Width

Sets the number of spaces per tab.

Font Size

Allows customization of the font size.

Font Family

Allows customization of the font family

Character Encoding

Specifies the character encoding for the file.

Spreadsheets

Evaluate Formulas	Specifies whether to evaluate formulas and display the resulting value, or to display the formula itself.
Ignore Empty Cells	Specifies whether to ignore empty cells when viewing differences.
Difference	Enables highlighting of additions, deletions and differences in the viewer.

Word processing documents, PDF documents, presentations

Difference

Enables highlighting of additions, deletions and differences in the viewer.

Legends

The differences are noticeably highlighted and color coded as explained by the legend: changes appear in yellow, additions are green and deletions are red.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Diff Viewer is completely navigable from the keyboard. You can move around the file, jump to changes, and make comments and defects. To get the list of keyboard shortcuts, click the Help button in the menu bar, then select Keyboard Shortcuts.

Shortcuts with ALT key are not supported on Apple Macintosh.

Limitations

Collaborator does not guarantee that Diff Viewer will display correct comparison results for the following cases:

Subversion, Perforce, TFS, RTC, Git: If you have "gaps" while adding subsequent atomic changelists to the same review. For example, add changelists 1, 2, and 4, but forget to add changelist 3.
Perforce, TFS, RTC: If you add pending changelists from different workspaces to the same review.
Git: If you add changelists from different branches or repositories to the same review.
RTC: If you add changelists from different workspaces or streams to the same review.
All source control systems: If you add several diffs (non atomic changelists) to the same review.

Diff Viewer Overview

Chat Pane

Diff Viewer Toolbar

Diff Viewer Header

Display Options Panel

Text-based formats

Spreadsheets

Word processing documents, PDF documents, presentations

Legends

Keyboard Shortcuts

Limitations

See Also