Microsoft’s Free XML Editor

XML is the wonder of the modern programming age. Its plain text can represent objects with properties and attributes to capture complex structures in a simple text file. And it’s even fairly easy to understand. Just look at it. It’s logical. But as logical as XML is, when you look at an XML file in production, it’s huge, convoluted, and impossible to grasp in one glimpse inside of Notepad. Lucky for us, our friends at Microsoft have come up with an answer in their free XML Notepad 2007 tool.

After installing XML Notepad 2007 (you can download it from Microsoft’s site or from Codeplex), the tool is simple to launch and use. In Windows Explorer, simply right-select any XML file and choose the option Edit with XML Notepad. The interface is intuitive and an easy way to view and edit XML files. One tab provides a tree view that allows you to collapse and expand each section to drill down quickly. Another tab provides a preview of the file, once the specified XSL transform has been applied.

Copy, paste, search, replace, and other standard editor functions are there along with XML-specific menus that let you insert elements, attributes and so on. An error list window at the bottom of the editor warns of any problems in real time, and a dynamic help window displays the xsd:documentation for nodes as they are selected. And perhaps best of all, elements are color–coded based on element type, making the content easy to scan visually.

XML is becoming more and more important when working with software. And this free tool from Microsoft is a great way to work with XML. Download it and try it for yourself. If you have other XML editing tools that you think are great (we like Notepad++, too), let us know about them, please.