How to Compare Texts

Without using Frames

 

What you need to do is basically to run two instances of your browser, side-by-side. One version of the text will be on the right, and the other on the left.

For Windows:
First you need to resize the window of your browser. To do that, look in the upper right-hand corner of your browser - you'll see three little boxes. If the middle one has two smaller boxes in it, click your mouse on it to make the window smaller; if the middle box just has one box in it, leave it alone.
    Next, put your mouse on the top bar of the browser - usually it's colored dark blue. Press down on the mouse button, keep it pressed down, and move the mouse around. Your browser window should move with it. Move the browser window over to the left-hand side of your monitor. Now move your mouse over the edge of the browser's window. Notice how the cursor becomes a two-headed arrow when you go over the edge?  Press down on the mouse button when the cursor is a two-headed arrow, keep it pressed down, and move the mouse around as before. See how the window gets bigger and smaller? Do that to the edges of the window so that your browser window covers about half the monitor screen - the left half.
    Next click on the File menu in the upper left-hand corner. Then, when the menu pops down, click on New, and then, in the little menu that comes up next to that, click on Window (Microsoft Internet Explorer), or Navigator Window (Netscape). You'll get another instance of your browser running in the same size window. Move it over to the right-hand side of the monitor, as you did before, and resize the windows so that each cover about half the screen.
    You now have two completely independent instances of your browser running at the same time. Type in, or go to, the URL of one of the texts in the left-hand window, and then do the same, but for a different text, in the right-hand window.
    That's all there is too it. You can now scroll down in each text in its own window to compare the two texts.

For Macs:
The procedure for Macs is basically the same as that for Windows, except that the details for resizing windows are a little different.

Some caveats:
    I believe this also works for older versions of Netscape or MS Internet Explorer (i. e., version 3 of either), but I don't know for sure. It may work on other browsers; I know one can do this with Opera, for example, but the methodology is different.
    This technique works best when your monitor is set to 800 by 600 pixels, or more. If you have your monitor set for just 640 by 480 pixels, this method won't work too well - the windows aren't big enough for the (relatively) poor resolution of your monitor. Increase the resolution, if you can.

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Web author: Charles Wohlers
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