Users regularly ask us if it is possible to hide the areas of a text comparison that have not changed. While there are valid reasons to want that, typically the underlying issue is that most people aren’t aware how to quickly scan all changes in a file.
Most of the time, not hiding unchanged areas while navigating through changes or conflicts is an advantage, as it allows you to see as much context as you need right at that moment to understand that particular change or conflict.
Scrolling through thousands of lines to spot changes is of course not a great experience. That’s why there are multiple ways to navigate changes and conflicts in Kaleidoscope:
Bottom Toolbar
Navigating Changes. Find up and down arrow buttons in the bottom right of a text comparison window.
A label left of the buttons also outlines how many changes there are and where within those changes you are currently located.
Navigating Conflicts. When merging conflicts, you will see different buttons, indicating that they navigate to the previous and next conflict instead of change. Hold down the option (⌥ ) key to bring back the regular buttons and jump between changes instead.
Also note the extra warning icon, showing you that this particular conflict is still unresolved.
Menu Commands
Navigating Changes. The Navigate menu contains commands Previous Change and Next Change that accomplish the same as clicking the toolbar buttons described above.
In addition, there is a setting to toggle whether changes should Wrap Around when hitting an end. A short notification above the editor will inform you about wrapping.
Navigating Conflicts. Conflict navigation has its own menu commands, Previous Conflict and Next Conflict.
Similar to the toolbar buttons, hold down the option (⌥ ) key to show alternate menu commands for navigating changes instead.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The best tip is to memorize the main keyboard shortcuts for navigation:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘▼ | Next Change / Conflict |
| ⌘▲ | Previous Change / Conflict |
And, you guessed it already, you can use ⌥⌘▼ and ⌥⌘▲ to navigate changes when merging conflicts.
These shortcuts are easy to remember, and once you get used to them, you will never look back.
Trackpad
Finally, if your Trackpad has a Swipe between pages action defined in System Settings (such as a Three Finger Swipe), you can also use that action to navigate. And of course, you will get the alternate action to navigate changes instead of conflicts in merge mode by holding the option (⌥ ) key.
