Comparing & navigating files

Two floating tools make it easy to compare two files side by side and to move around a large binary: editor pairing with the Pair Offset Window, and the Navigation Window. Both work with the hex editor and the 2D file editor, and follow whichever editor you last focused.

Pairing two editors

A pair is a two-way link between two open editors: scroll or move in one and the other follows. It links position only — it does not copy edits. Create one from an editor with Pair with… (or Pair with for a specific open editor), and break it with Unpair. Pairing two versions of the same file is the quickest way to see how a tune differs from stock as you scroll.

The Pair Offset Window

Open it from View › Pair Offset Window (Ctrl+Shift+P) — it appears once a pair exists and controls the pair that involves the active editor (a dropdown picks the partner when several pairs exist).

Locked (the default) — the two editors stay a fixed offset apart; type the offset or nudge it with the plus/minus buttons, and the partner follows the active editor as you move.
Unlocked — the link stops forwarding and the window shows the live address difference between the two as you scroll either side. Re-locking freezes that difference as the new offset.

Tip — when two images are shifted by a fixed amount, unlock, line the two views up by eye, then re-lock to capture the offset automatically.

Stepping through differences

With a pair active you can jump straight between the bytes that differ from the pair reference: Next Pair Difference and Previous Pair Difference move the view to each change in turn, and the status bar reports the address of each difference (or tells you when there are no more). It is the fast way to review exactly what changed between two files.

The Navigation Window

Open it from View › Navigation Window (Ctrl+Shift+N); it pops up automatically the first time you open a file or hex editor, then you control it from the View menu. It acts on the active editor and offers up to three rows of jumps:

File position (always) — jump to the start or end of the file, step one cell back or forward, or move a whole page at a time.
Maps (when the file has map regions) — Previous Map / Next Map jump between the defined maps.
Differences (when the editor is comparing against a reference) — Previous Diff / Next Diff jump between the changed regions.

Rows that do not apply to the active editor hide themselves, and the window resizes to fit.