Yea, the tools you use Greatly effect how easy/hard it is to work on the files!
I love Examdiff pro, think it was $15 to get the non freeware version that adds a few things but mostly for me, per character compares instead of just per word.
Another addition is
Ultraedit, and get or setup color highlighting. Or I have heard
Textpad is also pretty good. Both are shareware.