SourceTree: Soft wrap code for internal diff window
Asked by Oleg Detinin:

Hello:

Is it possible to implement a soft wrap of text in the internal SourceTree diff window, so no horizontal scrollbars will be displayed ? It is much easier to scroll up/down rather than left right.

![](../../upfiles/Screen_Shot_2012-06-04_at_14.39.09_.png)


Answers:
author: stevestreeting
body: It's possible, but actually I would find that more difficult to read, since the lines then become variable height. Possibly an option that could be added though.

comments: author: Oleg Detinin
body: Thanks Steve ! It will be VERY VERY helpful !

Also, this can be (or rather should be) an option in preferneces (for those who prefer to scroll left/right). As for a lines with variable height -- soft wrap can be represented with dots, like this:

![](../../upfiles/Screen_Shot_2012-06-04_at_23.37.47_.png)

Thanks again !


author: Steven Bamford
body: I would find this option extremely useful. As well as code, I use git for documents (written in LaTeX), in which (if the editor is using soft wrapping) sometimes an entire paragraph will be in a single line. It would make sense for lines to wrap in this case. Highlighting changed words within lines (like FileMerge) would also be really useful in this case.


author: Helga Schneider
body: +1 for adding an option, which would be much improving my workflow. I have the same scenario as Steven, using git through SourceTree for keeping LaTeX sources with soft wrapped paragraphs.


author: Jared Richardson
body: I'm dealing with Markdown docs and the scrolling is makes it difficult to use. Optional word wrap would be very useful.


author: dscotese
body: The more we embellish the feature, the longer it will take to implement.

Please just add an option to the context menu at the top with a checkmark for "wrap" and if it's checked, then wrap lines and push the line numbers down.


author: elmimmo
body: It is not *useful* but imperative for comparing prose in plain text. Paragraphs can be one single ultra-long line if one relies on the text editor to soft wrap lines (and why wouldn't anyone), so no soft wrapping makes the diff tool useless.

Of course, for plain text prose, lines as a unit of comparison does not make sense at all, so it would be even more useful if, on top of soft line wrapping, there was the option to compare differences at word level, inline, like \`git --color-words\` or [Diff, Match and Patch's diff](https://neil.fraser.name/software/diff_match_patch/svn/trunk/demos/demo_diff.html)


author: Felix Breuer
body: I also track text documents (LaTeX) in git. Having both line wrapping and intra-line diffs in SourceTree would be immensely valuable to me.

comments: author: Saiwing Yeung
body: Yes, please add \`dwdiff\` style diff as an option.


author: Luke Crook
body: diff wrap is absolutely a requirement for comparing documentation. Please add this.


author: m_gol
body: I concur to others. It may seem like a burden for code but for prose, e.g. LaTeX documents it's a must, the diff is really completely useless without it.


author: grasshoppermouse
body: Agreed. Soft wrap plus intraline diffs. Code is increasingly interwoven with text, as in sweave and rmarkdown docs.


author: Luke Crook
body: org-mode + latex + git ftw.

Please add line wrap.


author: Todd Patterson
body: I would also really like to have this option. Looks like the request / improvement is being tracked here -

* <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREE-1783>

Just voted for it.


author: Jared Richardson
body: This would be very helpful when viewing diffs for prose, comments, etc.


Tags: user-interface