Representing change in DITA and DocBook CALS tables

DeltaXignia are excited to announce new versions of their world leading DITA and DocBook comparison software. Our research and development teams have been creating sophisticated new methods for handling CALS Tables, successfully released in XML Compare version 12 and now available in both DITA Compare version 10 and DocBook Compare version 8. These new versions include a major update to the way we handle CALS tables when comparing tables and reporting differences, together with a few new configuration capabilities to get the best results possible when processing tables.

Improved DocBook and DITA table comparison

Anyone who has tried to compare XML tables knows how tricky this can be. There is a trade-off between capturing structural changes and showing the content changes in a way that is useful for the reader. Our new DocBook and DITA Compare products include a completely fresh approach to table comparison showing users as much detail as possible when showing content changes. If you are used to seeing row duplications in table results, you’ll be pleased to know that these have been significantly reduced. In most cases, changes are now shown at the cell level, presenting a more intuitive and readable table result.

Changes to spans

Handling spans is much improved with the results far more easy to display and understand when reviewed. Previously, row duplication often occurred when table changes included a modification to a span. The following examples show how the superior table results for both row and column spanning changes.