visual studio 2010 - MS Office file diff under TFS -

when compare 2 versions of ms word doc/excel book in team foundation server source explorer, result boring "binary filles differ" dialog.

it not have way though. relevant apps (word/excel) have excellent built-in diff interface. can witness when work versioning-enabled sharepoint file library , compare previous version. also, tortoisesvn brings when diffs.

question - can enable in tfs?

you can configure comparison (diff) , merge tools per file type (extension). available via tools -> options -> source control -> visual studio team foundation server -> configure user tools" button or via command-line tf diff /configure

in order set comparison tool, you'll specify extension (use .* if want used files not otherwise specified), operation you're setting (compare or merge), command invoke , arguments command. arguments, variables available use following:

%1 = original file (in diff, pre-changes file, in merge, "server" or "theirs" file, file base file after "their" changes applied) %2 = modified file (in diff, post-changes file, in merge "yours" file - base file "your" changes applied) %3 = base file (in 3-way merge operation, file both "theirs" , "yours" derived - common ancestor.  doesn't mean it's version changes based from, since may cherry-pick merge) %4 = merged file (the output file merge operation - filename merge tool should write to) %5 = diff options (any additional command-line options want pass diff tool - comes play when using "tf diff /options" command-line) %6 = original file label (the label %1 file) %7 = modified file label (the label %2 file) %8 = base file label (the label %3 file) %9 = merged file label (the label %4 file) 

to use tortoisesvn -- seems want -- specify command file path tortoisemerge.exe

for comparisons, specify arguments: /base:%1 /mine:%2 /basename:%6 /minename:%7

for merges, specify arguments: /base:%3 /mine:%2 /theirs:%1 /basename:%8 /minename:%7 /theirsname:%6 /merged:%4 /mergedname:%9

this , other information on arguments various merge tools (including other word comparison tools diffdoc.exe) can found on james manning's msdn blog. may find use in stackoverflow question on invoking word comparison tool command line.