View XML Files

XML stands for extensible markup language. HTML is a version of XML used to generate web pages in browsers. The nice thing about XML is that you can use any tags you want and organize them in any way. Many different document formats are based on XML, such as the DOCX format used by Microsoft Word. XML files can most easily be viewed in browsers, but each browser handles XML in different ways. You can open XML files hosted on the web or located on your computer.

Steps

Opening XML Files with a Browser

1. Open Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.
2. Open the XML file. Click the URL of the XML file or click and drag the XML file into a new browser window.
3. Review the XML file. The XML tags are purple and the XML content is in normal text. In Chrome and Safari, click the arrows to collapse or expand the tags. In Firefox, click - or + to collapse or expand the tags.
4. Save the XML file. If you're looking at the XML file on the web and you want to save it, click the File menu, and then click Save. Choose where you want to save the XML file, and then click Save.

View and Edit XML Files on Windows

1. Download XML Notepad. XML Notepad is an XML viewer and editor published by Microsoft. Go to https://xmlnotepad.codeplex.com and download the downloadable or standalone installer. The links are located in the Project Description.
   • If you're on Mac OS X, TextWrangler is a free text editor that color format the tags in an XML file to make it easier to edit.
2. Install XML Notepad. Open the Notepad XML installation file you downloaded and follow the setup instructions to install it.
3. Open an XML file with Notepad XML. Open Notepad XML. Click the File menu, and then click Open. Find an XML file on your computer, and then click Open.
4. View the XML in Tree View. Tree View separates out the XML tags into the left sidebar. Click the Tree View tab. Click a tag to show the text content inside it.
5. View the XML in XSL Output. The XSL Output view shows you the XML like you would see it in a browser.
6. Edit the XML file. Edit the XML file like you would a text file. XML Notepad has many other features for working with XML files.

Tips

• Sometimes XML files may be invalid. If this occurs, you will receive an error message within your browser. Download the file, and then open it in an XML editor.
• If you have been sent attachments that you expect to be office documents (perhaps they sent a batch and a few are .doc and the others are .xml) you can simply edit the file extension and use Office to open them.

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Sources and Citations

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• Edit XML Files