My new product feed has the English names in capitals; can I compare it without capitalization counting as a change?

Yes. Turn on 'Ignore case (A = a)' and a product name in capitals and the same name in normal case count as one line, so the result shows only what really changed: a price, a weight, a new item. The option works on letters that have case, meaning Latin and similar scripts; Arabic lines are compared exactly as before.

Published · 3 min read

Where the capitals come from

An export from an accounting system or warehouse software sometimes writes every name in capitals, while your old file uses normal case. The content is the same, but a literal comparison sees every line as different, and the real edits drown among dozens of lines where only the letter case moved.

Worked example

The old file has two lines: Arabic Coffee 250g, then Green Tea.

The new file: ARABIC COFFEE 250G, then Green Tea.

Without the option: Added 1, Removed 1, of which modified lines 1, Unchanged 1.

With 'Ignore case': a message that the texts are identical after ignoring what you chose to ignore.

If the new file also has a third item such as Mint Tea, the same setting gives Added 1, Unchanged 2. The only real change is the new product.

Steps

  1. Open Text comparison and paste the old file, then the new one, one product per line.
  2. Turn on 'Ignore case (A = a)' in the comparison options.
  3. Read what differences remain. If columns are separated by uneven spacing, turn on 'Ignore whitespace differences' as well.

What you see after ignoring

In the unified view and in the plain-text result, lines that match after ignoring are shown with their text from the original file, while the side-by-side view shows each file's own spelling. So if you copy the result, do not expect the capitalized names from the new file in its context lines. The option also applies to the word highlighting inside a modified line, so no word lights up just because it went uppercase.

The limit with Arabic

Arabic letters have no upper and lower case, so the option changes nothing for them. We compared قهوة عربية with قهوه عربية with the option on, and the line stayed modified. It does not merge ة and ه or أ and ا, and it does not ignore diacritics.

If your new file mixes Arabic and English, the option handles the English part only, and any difference in how the Arabic words are spelled still shows up.

Want the file itself to match?

Ignoring affects the comparison only; the new file keeps its capitals. If you want the names published consistently, convert them with the Text case converter, then compare the converted copy with the old file to confirm the conversion changed nothing else.

Common questions

Does the option work for word and character comparison?

Yes, it works the same way at all three levels.

Are 250g and 250G different?

Without the option yes, with it no.

Are my files uploaded?

No, the comparison runs in your browser.