XML Editor

If you want to seriously learn and use XML, you will definitely benefit from using a professional XML editor.

XML is Text-Based

XML is a text-based markup language.

One important thing about XML is that it can be created and edited with simple text editors like Notepad.

However, when you start working with XML, you will quickly find that using a professional XML editor to edit XML documents is better.

Why Not Use Notepad?

Many web developers use Notepad to edit HTML and XML documents because it comes with most operating systems and is easy to use. Personally, I often use Notepad to quickly edit simple HTML, CSS, and XML files.

But if you use Notepad for XML editing, you may soon encounter several issues.

Notepad cannot determine the type of document you are editing, so it cannot assist you in your work.

Why Use an XML Editor?

Today, XML is a very important technology, and development projects are using these XML-based technologies:

• Defining XML structure and data types with XML Schema
• Transforming XML data with XSLT
• Exchanging XML data between applications with SOAP
• Describing web services with WSDL
• Describing web resources with RDF
• Accessing XML data with XPath and XQuery
• Defining graphics with SMIL

To write error-free XML documents, you need an intelligent XML editor!

XML Editor

A professional XML editor will help you write error-free XML documents, validate XML against a DTD or schema, and enforce you to create valid XML structures.

An XML editor should be able to:

• Automatically add end tags for start tags
• Enforce you to write valid XML
• Validate XML against a DTD
• Validate XML against a Schema
• Color-code your XML syntax

At tutorialpro.org, we have been using XMLSpy for many years. XMLSpy is our favorite XML editor. Here are some features we particularly like:

• Available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions
• Easy to use
• Context-sensitive helpers
• Syntax highlighting and beautiful printing
• Intelligent error fixing and automatic correction
• Easy switching between text view and grid view
• Graphical XML Schema editor
• Import and export for all major databases
• SharePoint® server support
• Built-in templates for many XML document types
• Chart creation for XML data
• Intelligent auto-completion for XPath 1.0/2.0
• XSLT 1.0/2.0 editor, parser, and debugger
• XQuery editor, parser, and debugger
• SOAP client and debugger
• Graphical WSDL 1.1/2.0 editor
• XBRL validation & taxonomy editing
• Support for Office 2007 / OOXML
• Code generation for Java, C++, and C#
• Support for HTML5 and CSS3

Learn more about XMLSpy

XMLSpy is one of the six tools in the Altova MissionKit® XML software suite. Learn more about the Altova MissionKit for XML development.