You might want to download Apples developer tools(XCode) If you sign up as a free developer you can download it for free from Developer.Apple.Com. Inside of the folder Developer/Applications/Utilities there is a nice little program called FileMerge which displays things side by side in a nice manner. -Mark On Feb 12, 2012, at 8:23 PM, Nobumi Iyanaga wrote: > Hello Mark, > > Thank you very much for all your help! > > I ended up with the following script: > > ----- > > property script_fname : "DocComp.sh" -- your "external script" name -- by Kino, 2006-05-20 > > property file_1 : "" > property runtime : 0 > property firsttime : "yes" > property firstfile_passed : "no" > property secondfile_passed : "no" > property filetypes : {".txt", ".html", ".rtf", ".rtfd", ".doc", ".docx", ".wordml", ".odt", ".webarchive", ".xml"} > > on idle > if runtime < (current date) - 5 * minutes then > set file_1 to "" > quit > end if > return 1 > end idle > > on open (droppedItemsList) > set my_path to POSIX path of (path to me) > set shell_scpt to quoted form of (my_path & "Contents/Resources/" & script_fname) > > set runtime to current date > if (number of droppedItemsList) ≥ 3 then > display dialog "This droplet accepts two files." > return quit > else if (number of droppedItemsList) = 1 then > if firsttime = "yes" then > display dialog "Please drop another file..." > set firsttime to "no" > end if > if file_1 = "" then > set file_1 to first item of (droppedItemsList) > set file_1 to POSIX path of file_1 > return > else > set file_2 to first item of (droppedItemsList) > set file_2 to POSIX path of file_2 > end if > else if (number of droppedItemsList) = 2 then > set file_1 to first item of (droppedItemsList) > set file_1 to POSIX path of file_1 > > set file_2 to second item of (droppedItemsList) > set file_2 to POSIX path of file_2 > end if > if file_1 = file_2 then > display dialog "You have chosen the same file. Quitting..." > return quit > end if > > repeat with i in filetypes > if file_1 ends with i then > set firstfile_passed to "yes" > end if > if file_2 ends with i then > set secondfile_passed to "yes" > end if > end repeat > > set thename_1 to do shell script "basename " & quoted form of file_1 > set thename_2 to do shell script "basename " & quoted form of file_2 > > if firstfile_passed = "no" then > display dialog "The first file \"" & thename_1 & "\" is not of the supported types. Quitting..." > return quit > end if > > if secondfile_passed = "no" then > display dialog "The second file \"" & thename_2 & "\" is not of the supported types. Quitting..." > return quit > end if > > display dialog "Comparing " & return & thename_1 & return & "with " & return & thename_2 > > try > do shell script "/bin/sh " & shell_scpt & space & quoted form of file_1 & space & quoted form of file_2 > --set res to the result > on error errMsg > display dialog "An error occurred: " & errMsg > end try > > set file_1 to "" > set file_2 to "" > set firsttime to "yes" > set firstfile_passed to "no" > set secondfile_passed to "no" > quit > end open > > ------- > > The "DocComp.sh" compares two files (of different types) with Unix diff, and displays the result in a nice (readable) rtf file with TextEdit. I will upload the result in my web site, when my friend, Kino, will give me the permission. > > Thank you very much again! > > Best regard, > > Nobumi Iyanaga > Tokyo, > Japan