This article or chapter is incomplete and its contents need further attention. Some information may be missing or may be wrong, spelling and grammar may have to be improved, use your judgment! ## Contents * 1 Definition * 2 Typology and choice of XML Editors * 2.1 How to choose an XML editor * 2.2 Recommendations for free XML editors * 3 WYSIWYG and XML-aware Text Editors * 3.1 Adobe FrameMaker 7.2 * 3.2 Arbortext tools * 3.3 Plugins for MS Word * 4 Simple word-processor like editing tools * 4.1 Xerlin * 4.2 Vex * 4.3 XMLmind * 4.4 Others * 5 TTW Editors * 6 Complex Tree/Text/Structure Editors with a GUI * 6.1 oXygen * 6.2 EditX * 6.3 xmlBlueprint * 6.4 XMetal * 6.5 XMLSpy * 6.6 Liquid XML Studio * 6.7 XML Writer * 6.8 Xmplify * 6.9 Others * 7 Simple structure editors * 7.1 epcEdit * 7.2 Exchanger XML Editor lite * 7.3 XNGR * 7.4 MEX * 7.5 XED * 7.6 XML Pad * 7.7 XML Copy Editor * 7.8 Jaxe * 7.9 Emilé * 8 Simple tree editors * 8.1 Xerlin * 8.2 XML Spear * 8.3 Conglomerate * 8.4 ElfData * 8.5 Xeena * 8.6 XMLmind Personal Edition * 8.7 XML Notepad * 8.8 Others * 9 Programmer's editors with good XML support * 9.1 Emacs * 9.2 jEdit * 9.3 Other * 10 HTML or programming editors with limited XML support * 10.1 PSPad * 10.2 HTML KIT * 11 Raymond Meester's list of XML editors * 12 Links * 12.1 Various * 12.2 Lists of XML editors * 13 References ## 1 Definition[edit | edit source] * An XML editor allows an author to write XML contents Warning: I will not allow any dishonest and/or space gobbling publicity here. Only short entries are accepted and no pictures (!) This Wiki is about educational technology and not lengthy product descriptions. To discuss editors, please use the discussion page. Offenders will have their IP blocked and their product removed or worse ... - DSchneider 01:02, 30 October 2006 (MET). Of course, everyone is allowed to fix mistakes :) * Choosing a free or cheap multipurpose XML editor is a nightmare (you can quote DSchneider on this). Descriptions below concern systems tested in october 2006 (unless otherwise specified for more recent entries). Note: Special-purpose XML Editors like the ones produced in the RELOAD project to support educational modeling languages will not be discussed here. This page is about general purpose XML Editors. ## 2 Typology and choice of XML Editors[edit | edit source] List of criteria for defining types of editors * WYSIWYG vs. WYSIWYM ("What you see is what you mean"). Does the editor support various views ? * WYSIWYM in turn means either some form of "tree editing" or "structure editing" * What kind of editing, validation, debugging support is included ? In particular: is editing ergonomic ? * Is the tool meant to edit all sorts of contents vs. focused on one kind of vocabulary (e.g. RSS contents or X3D) * Is there (a) light-weight, (b) good or (c) no support for various XML vocabularies (e.g. are there at least some included DTDs and associated XSLT style sheets). * Are there additional tools (e.g. XSLT or XQuery support) ? Major types of XML Editors * See the Table of Contents of this page :) ### 2.1 How to choose an XML editor[edit | edit source] Minimal things your XML editor should be able to do In all modes, an editor should: 1. Check for XML well-formedness 2. Check for validity against several kinds of XML grammars (DTD, Relax NG, XML Schema) 3. Highlight errors (of all sorts) 4. Suggest available XML tags (in a given context). Also clearly show which ones are mandatory and which ones are optional, and display them in the right order. 5. Allow the user to move/split/join elements in a more or less ergonomic way (although it is admitted that these operations need some training) 6. Include support for XSLT and XQuery (However, if you have installation skills you can easily compensate lack of support by installing a processor like Saxon The next criteria depend on the kind of XML vocabularies: For data-centric XML, an editor should: 1. Allow viewing and editing of XML documents in a tree view or boxed view (or both together) 2. Provide a context-dependent choice of XML tags and attributes (DTD/XSD awareness) For text-centric XML: 1. Allow editing of XML documents in a structure view 2. Allow editing of XML documents in somewhat WYSIWYG view. Such a view can be based on an associated CSS (most common solution) or XSLFO (I am dreaming here) or use some proprietry format (which is not very practical for casual users!). Also allow users to switch on/off tags or element boundary markers. 3. Provide a context-dependent choice of XML tags and attributes (DTD/XSD awareness). The user should be able to right-click within the XML text and not in some distant tree representation. 4. Automatically insert all mandatory sub-elements when an element is created. 5. Automatically complete XML Tags when working without a DTD or other schema. 6. Indent properly (and assist users to indent single lines as well as the whole document) Among the freeware editors, none can really meat these criteria. A list of selection criteria 1. Your budget 2. Your type of XML data: * To edit small text-centric XML, use a structure editor or a somewhat WYSIWYG XML editor. * To edit large texts (e.g. DocBook or DITA or your own schema), use an XML-aware word processor or a high-end somewhat WYSIWYG XML editor. Users with good technical background also can use a simple structure editor like Emacs's XML mode. * To edit data-centric XML, use either a tree editor or a structure editor. 3. Support for specific XML applications * There are special purpose editors for educational vocabularies. See articles for various educational modeling languages, e.g. IMS Learning Design * To edit other specific vocabularies, check if there is good support * To edit vector graphics, e.g. SVG, X3D, MathML you may consider an appropriate drawing tool, e.g. for SVG use Inkscape. 4. Your technical skills. However XML editing (of text-centric XML in particular) will also require conceptual change that is at least as difficult as learning how to use a tool. ### 2.2 Recommendations for free XML editors[edit | edit source] DSchneider spent a whole day (30 Oct 2006, small updates on March 2009 and Sep 2010) on finding a suitable free XML editor for beginners that meets all of the above criteria. None was found, however I do make recommendations (but keep in mind that I only spent 10 hours on this): * A lot of so-called XML editors are not even DTD-ware. * Some software crashed on start (e.g. the MS XML Notepad) * Most editors are difficult to learn and to use and/or don't parse a file because the XML file or its declaration doesn't have the exact vibrations needed. * Testing was done against a very simple XML/CSS/DTD: XML \- CSS \- DTD Here are my choices: * WYSIWYG-like Editor (with CSS): Xerlin (I am not sure about this, because of a font problem). As an alternative: see XMLmind. * Structure editor (i.e. the kind you would use to teach an XML class): Exchanger XML Editor lite. Also consider: * epcEdit which is the most user-friendly fully DTD-aware editor. It doesn't have built-in XSLT support nor can it handle XSD Schemas. * XML Copy Editor if you want a simple, easy to use, fast and small editor with limited tag insertion support and no attribute insertion support. * Jaxe if you want to configure a tool to have users edit your own XML application or have a nice WYSIWYM interface to text-centric XML (e.g. if you teach XML in humanities or wish to use DocBook). * Tree Editor: XMLmind Personal Edition (also supports CSS-style XML editing but nodes have to bee added trough a tree view. The free version does not support XSLT transformations.) * I also recommend to technical persons to consider using a programmer's editor with an XML plugin (for beginners maybe jEdit, I personally still prefer either Gnu Emacs or Xemacs). These at least can be used to edit other sorts of contents. ## 3 WYSIWYG and XML-aware Text Editors[edit | edit source] DSchneider' opinion: I believe that XML Editors for text-centric contents should work more or less like text processors. I didn't have the chance to look at most of the products listed here (so there is no endorsement except for FrameMaker which I know fairly well). Such tools are either strictly WYSIWYG (e.g. FrameMaker) or sort of WYSIWYG (e.g. like an HTML editor). In addition these tools also allow optionally to display tags, the XML context, an XML tree etc. ### 3.1 Adobe FrameMaker 7.2[edit | edit source] * FrameMaker Home Page DSchneider's opinion: Adobe would have the skills to do a nice tool based on FrameMaker (the only real Text Processor I am aware of). FrameMaker is a very good SGML and XML text processor compared to others. However, XML editing needs a lot of configuration work and the product is quite expensive, but I like it nevertheless. In addition, version 7.2 of FrameMaker doesn't have XSL-FO support which I find strange. Major problem I had were mapping internal FM objects (XRefs, Tables, Figures) to certain DTDs. E.g. one can't map XRefs to non-empty elements without C programming. See also my documentation on old FrameMaker SGML 6 XML. Some of it is still useful for version 7. (I didn't test 7.2's XSLT support yet, some of my problems with 7.0 may be solved with this I think). Only recommended if you either can count on technical FrameMaker support in your organization or if you are a technical person and willing to consult a 500p. manual. Disclaimer: I only wrote 2-3 texts with this (and that was before FM 7.2 and FM 8.0), e.g. The TECFA Seed Catalog. Its PDF is native FrameMaker, but editing was done trough an extension of DITA. ### 3.2 Arbortext tools[edit | edit source] * Abortext One of the real XML players that produce real tools (e.g. Epic) that get decent reviews (but I did not test any). Price: over $1000. ### 3.3 Plugins for MS Word[edit | edit source] DSchneider's opinion: I really dislike Word because it does not follow my orders (it behaves like dog) and because some stuff that should be easy (floating figures, side headers and cross-references) are very difficult to do. (I don't like Open Office either btw and for the same reasons). Both use an XML representation that mixes contents, style and other information, but from an author's point of view there is no XML at all. There exist products (plugins) for Word to edit XML. No links here, because most links and products I have seen decay ... ## 4 Simple word-processor like editing tools[edit | edit source] Usually these tools allow you to define a CSS style-sheet that will make your editing somewhat WYSIWYG. These tools (in the same way as most HTML editors) also work as simple structure editors (i.e. offer a structure-editing view and also sometimes a tree-editing view). Most work more or less well. In any case, potential users must learn (or be trained) to use the tool. Frequently, it is very difficult to find even the most needed commands (like inserting an element or an attribute). ### 4.1 Xerlin[edit | edit source] * Xerlin * Sourceforge * Formerly "Morphon". The website http://www.morphon.com/ did expire and was taken by another company. This is a freeware product. Win/MaxOsX, Linux, Solaris. Runs under Java 1.4.1 (downloads with or w/o Java VM). Also comes with a CSS editor. Display (i.e. fonts) may be lousy on your system, you'll have to test. * Text view: To edit contents in a near-WYSIWYG view, one must define a CSS and associate it to the XML document. In addition boxes or elements labels can be shown (but see comments below). * Source view. * Tree view of tags (linked to text view). * XSLT support plus some plugins that can be installed * A pop-up window shows errors. * Hint: The key to understand Xerlin is to understand how element insertion and attribute editing works. These functionalities are available either * through pop-ups (right-click in editing window or the tree representation or ALT-I / ALT-K * trough editing panes in a four panel view (see the View/Affichage menu). Opinion of DSchneider: Xerlin may be suitable for novice users, however they must be trained a bit before they can use the interface. In particular, users must learn to use the "Insertion tool" (within, before, after, replace, etc.) (16:55, 29 October 2006 (MET)). This is the only free XML text-view editor that I found and can somewhat recommend. However, I hardly can read labels for elements, system fonts can be changed but it didn't figure out how to affect labels. Copy/Cut/Move etc. is not very easy. Development of Xerlin seems to have stopped in 2005. Daniel K. Schneider 15:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC) ### 4.2 Vex[edit | edit source] VEX home page * Free wordprocessor-like interface * Cross-platform (version 1.4 or better), based on the Eclipse platform. * One version of VEX is packaged with an Eclipse run-time * One version is available as plugin for Eclipse which you must install beforehand (120 MB +) * DTD support to define document types * CSS style-sheets to define document layout * The Vex editor widget is also available as a pure Java, cross-platform component with bindings to Swing and SWT. Developers can re-use this widget, for example as an applet in a web-based application. * Opinion of DSchneider. Nice tool for people with technical background, but you need a good computer for Eclipse and it takes space (download with Eclipse run-time is about 25 MB). Vex (version 2006) is IMHO totally unsuitable for beginners. Navigation and insertion is difficult to learn and in addition it has the very annoying habit of a typical developer's IDE to force people to define projects. I simply want to edit an XML text and not do projects. Notice: This editor needs to be re-evaluated 15:10, 20 September 2010 (CEST). ### 4.3 XMLmind[edit | edit source] XMLmind (free) standard edition displays a CSS style text along a tree view. * See the entry below, since XMLmind is mostly a tree editor. ### 4.4 Others[edit | edit source] * Serna. Commercial WYSIWYG XML Editor. Support for DocBook, TEI and Dita. Win/Unix. Specifications look good, but NOT TESTED @ Tecfa. Cheap Academic Prices ($45). [2/2004] ## 5 TTW Editors[edit | edit source] needs additions !!! TTW = "through the web editor" - it works within a browser Bitflux * Bitflux editor * This seems to be best and most popular one. End users: This kind of editor needs configuration work and is not for you ... * Bitflux Wiki (for technical help) See also other indexes * TTW ("Through the Web") WYSIWYG Web Editors - The List at Genii Software * Skybuilders FAQ and WYSIWYG Report ## 6 Complex Tree/Text/Structure Editors with a GUI[edit | edit source] Most or all are commercial. Worth the money if you do serious XML work (although I can't say for sure, since I didn't test many of these). ### 6.1 oXygen[edit | edit source] * oXygen * Commercial * Tree/structure editor Quote from an Email message: " XML editor covers all the today's XML technologies offering support for any XML document, working with XML Schemas, DTDs, Relax NG schemas and NRL Schemas. The powerful transformation support allows you not only to edit XSLT and XSL-FO documents but also to obtain documents in the desired output format like HTML, PS, PDF, etc. with just one click." * Opinion of DSchneider: TECFA had a site license for this but we lost it somehow and finally went for a free editor so that students also can use it at home. Overally speaking a nice product that supports various functionalities, including support for several essential XML applications. Easier to learn than Xemacs, but the menus and commands are not obvious either. ### 6.2 EditX[edit | edit source] * EditX. * Commercial * Quote from an email: "EditX is a cross-platform powerful and easy to use XML editor [...] and XML-related technologies such as XSLT / FO and XSD Schema. EditiX provides users with an extensive range of XML functionality within a refined IDE that guides you with intelligent entry helpers. EditiX has realtime XPath location and syntax error detection. Helpers are also provided with context syntax popup supporting DTD, Schema and RelaxNG. EditiX supports multiple templates and project management. User can apply XSLT or FO Transformation and show the result with a dedicated view. All the process can be managed by shortcuts. EditiX includes default templates with XML, DTD, XHTML, XSLT, XSD, XML RelaxNG, SVG, MathML and XML FO." * DSchneider's opinion: Not tested, but this gets good reviews (evaluation copy available) ### 6.3 xmlBlueprint[edit | edit source] * xmlBlueprint * Cheap ($45) XML structure editor for Windows with support for tag completion. Includes DTD/Relax/Schema, XSLT/XPath, UTF-16 support. * Editing: Tag insertion is done by typing "<" plus selection from a popup menu. The closing element has to be inserted in a similar way by typing "New (WordProcessingML. You can not save a random XML file to Word. * DTD aware: Shows all available child elements for an element in alphabetical order in a pane. Alternatively, in UTF-8 XML mode you can hit the < to insert elements. There is no support for attribute insertion (?). To install on Ubuntu, you can try getdeb.net. Otherwise you need to download the source and compile Download getdeb. dpkg -i getdeb-repository_XXXXX.deb apt-get install xmlcopyeditor Opinion of DSchneider: This is a nice structure editor. The interface is simple, i.e. exactly what we need in a simple structure editor. In addition, download footprint is small and it appears to be fast. However, assistance for tag and attribute insertion should be improved in future versions. As of June 2010 DTD awareness is still limited to showing a list of child elements in alphabetical order, instead of the required order. Tip: Before inserting a child element, validate. The parser will complain about the missing elements, i.e. tell you which ones are needed. ### 7.8 Jaxe[edit | edit source] * Jaxe, votre éditeur XML * Free XML Schema-aware XML editor * configurable with an XML schema and a file describing the menus to insert the elements (no right-click insertion) * adapted to structured narrative XML documents * validation at elements insertion * multi-platform (Java 1.3+) * Opinion of DSchneider: I tested this in 2003 and like the concept. It's a very user-friendly XML editor for text-centric contents, but needs configuration work (you have to define menus!). Not used in production at TECFA. ### 7.9 Emilé[edit | edit source] * Emile Good XML (DTD aware) emacs-like structure editor. Mac only ($80) * Opinion of DSchneider: My students who had Macs liked this product. Don't know if it is still alive. ## 8 Simple tree editors[edit | edit source] These are useful to edit very data-centric XML structures, in particular "tabular" schemas. DSchneider certainly prefers using a structure editor or a programmer's editor for doing data-centric XML like SVG. I just can't make myself liking tree editors. ### 8.1 Xerlin[edit | edit source] * Xerlin * Free open source multi-platform XML Java-based tree editor. * Code is based on "Merlot" which is no longer available * Opinion of DSchneider: Used at TECFA for data-centered XML editing by people who are afraid of Xemacs - 12/2002). Works nicely and is DTD-aware, but it's a tree editor (and I don't like them). The interface is not too difficult to learn. It prompts for a DTD when creating new files. Validation is implicit (e.g. bad nodes are in red). Not very powerful, but it can do. ### 8.2 XML Spear[edit | edit source] * XMLSpear home page at Donkey Development * Free * Mac / PC (Java based) * Validation and DTD/Schema aware (through a tree view). * Also available as Java Web Start * Not really tested, but it did work ok with a little XML file - Daniel K. Schneider 15:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC). ### 8.3 Conglomerate[edit | edit source] * Conglomerate home page * Conglomerate is a text-centric DTD-aware tree editor. "Conglomerate aims to be an XML editor that everyone can use. In particular, our primary goal is to create the ultimate editor for DocBook and similar formats." (home page, retrieved 15:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC)) * Installs under Linux/Ubuntu (available in the Synaptic Package Manager). * The project seems to be halted (last beta is from 2005), but creating a Docbook article did work, but I did not test this for real - Daniel K. Schneider 15:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC). ### 8.4 ElfData[edit | edit source] * ElfData XML Editor 2.41 * Commercial with a free trial period (7 day of using). For Mac * Not tested ### 8.5 Xeena[edit | edit source] * Xeena * A visual XML tree editor, Xeena is a generic Java application from the IBM Haifa Research Laboratory for editing valid XML documents derived from any valid DTD (no schema support anymore). Can be customized. (version 1.2 in aug 2004, after a long break, no further version after that as of Sep 2010) * Xeena was used as a basis for an X3D-Edit editor. ### 8.6 XMLmind Personal Edition[edit | edit source] * XMLmind XML Editor version 4.6.1 (or better) * Cross-platform (Java-based) with platform installers * Simple to use plugin manager. * Easier Interface than others, i.e. one can find the right commands after 3 minutes of trying. Also when you create an element with this editor, it will insert all mandatory children (like psgml/xemacs). This is quite practical. However if you "force delete" an element, you only can add it "after" or "before" its sisters, not from the parent. * Multi-pane display (tree, CSS styled text, element/attribute pane) * DTD, W3C XML Schema, RELAX NG schema and Schematron are all fully supported. * Element manipulation is trough tree view. After selecting an element you can insert elements either by selecting (tiny) before/after/within buttons in the top right elements pane or use shortcuts: (ctrl-h = insert before, ctrl-i = insert within, ctrl-j = insert after). Same principle for the attribute pane. DSchneider's opinion * I like this one best among all sorts of free tree/structure editors except that it doesn't support XSLT transformations (I do them anyhow with saxon on the command line). * Starting version v3.5.1 it no longer has restrictions for Schema support. So really upgrade if you have an older version! * I did not manage to optionally display elements tags in the CSS view. That is a missing feature (which I use a lot when I write with FrameMaker). Otherwise this view seems to work perfectly well and it is useful to edit content-centric XML. ### 8.7 XML Notepad[edit | edit source] * XML Notepad 2007 is a free Microsoft tool for Windows * Needs the (huge) .Net 2.0 framework installed (nice thing to have for windows users). * Opinion of DSchneider: The 2007 version works fine (a previous version crashed on my swiss-french WIN XP). This editor can be useful for people who already have .net installed and don't want a complicated tool. This editor is not DTD aware as far as I can tell and therefore not that useful. It is somewhat XSD aware. New elements have to be typed (this is not practical if you plan to work with XML a lot) and if you mispell/place an element an error message will appear. ### 8.8 Others[edit | edit source] * xmloperator Free XML tree editor, Java-based, DTD or Relax aware (v. 2.3 sept 2003). Comment: Seems difficult to use, but at least it seems to work. * XMLFox, Free XML tree editor for Windows. Needs .NET 1.0 framework and Data Access Components (no need to install the latter on a recent Win XP). Opinion of 01:02, 30 October 2006 (MET): This installed fine, but it only supports XSD (no DTDs or Relax NG), therefore useless to me. Also it has the deeply annoying habit of asking each time if I want to associate xml files with it. * Peter's XML Editor for Windows (MSXML-based tree editor). Opinion of DSchneider 01:02, 30 October 2006 (MET): Not worth the trouble, since I wasn't able to get XML editing support. (The editor did not find the DTD either when I tried to validate). Maybe it only works with XSD ? Otherwise, this tool has potential as easy structure/tree editor. * MindFusion XML Viewer. A really simple viewer/editor (you may modify contents of elements). Not worth the trouble for editing. ## 9 Programmer's editors with good XML support[edit | edit source] Programmer's editors are more difficult to learn. However, you only need to learn one single tool for most of your needs ..... ### 9.1 Emacs[edit | edit source] There are several flavors of Emacs. The most popular ones are Gnu Emacs and Xemacs. X(Emacs) is a programming editor of choice since the 80's and its modern versions offer decent XML support. However, Xemacs is difficult to learn (and typical users don't want to do tutorials). But once you know the 100 or so essential keystrokes plus using the help system you will be fast as opposed to typical XML editor interfaces that are difficult to lean and where you will remain slow. * Xemacs or GNU Emacs (Both run under various OSs). Over the last years we favored GNU Emacs since it offered better UTF-8 support. For MacOS X, see also Aquamacs). * XEmacs support: A patched PSGML mode with XML support is included in Xemacs 21.0 (used @ TECFA and by myself, works great on Unix and Win95/98/NT). All you have to do is click on XML/PSGML/CSS/XSLT etc. support when you install this program with the network installer (make sure of this !!). * GNU Emacs support: * PSGML mode supports DTD-aware structure editing plus some internal validation (external validation can be added on Unix installations). PSGML is a powerful context sensitive tool. Documentation: Using Emacs for XML documents, IBM developer works article by Brian Gillian (Note: Xemacs users can skip the installation notice). Bob DuCharme has a good page with PSGML tricks. * nXML is James Clark Emacs mode for Relax NG schemas and it is installed as default in typical modern GNU emacs distributions. Read the short article from XML hack. Read The Design of RELAX NG if you want to know why you may want to use Relax NG. * Not tested: sxml-mode for (X)Emacs and xslide - Emacs Major Mode for XSL Stylesheets (no idea for which Emacs this is meant.... Xemacs already includes such a mode). As far as we can tell, there exists no Emacs mode for XSD. Workaround is to translate the XSD to RNG (Relax) and then use nXML to validate. ### 9.2 jEdit[edit | edit source] * jEdit * jEdit is a popular and free programming editor. A very good alternative to (X)Emacs. * XML support is provided through several downloadable plugins (via a simple to use plugin manager). * XML plugin: validation against DTD or XSD and element trees in a dockable side-window * XSLT * CSS * XQuery * Make sure to install all XML-related plugins and side-kick * DSchneider's opinion: Compared to Xemacs I find jEdit awkward to use. Firstly, I didn't figure out how to indent XML code. Second, error finding is a bit awkward. Only practical way I found is to save the file or menu plugins/side-kick/parse buffer. Note: the error window may hide behind the editing window. But at least the tool is working correctly with a correct DTD and it is easier for novice users. * Update nov 4: Reinstall jEdit 4.3pre5 or better. The new XML plugin seems to be much better. ### 9.3 Other[edit | edit source] * DSchneider doesn't have time to evaluate these. But if you are already using a programmers editor (like BBEdit or VIM) or an IDE (like Eclipse), make sure to check whether there XML functionalities 'or' whether there are plugins you can download. Download them all (including XSLT, CSS, TreeViewing, Error Displaying ...) ## 10 HTML or programming editors with limited XML support[edit | edit source] These tools are fairly useless XML editors, but if you already use them for HTML or other editing, you may profit from simple features like tag closing, indentation and such. ### 10.1 PSPad[edit | edit source] * PSPAD Freeware editor * General features: Templates and support for various programming languages, Macros, .... * XML extensions: tag closing and formatting (not tested) ### 10.2 HTML KIT[edit | edit source] * HTML-Kit * A popular HTML and Scripting languages editor. This tool doesn't have an XML editor (as far as DSchneider can tell) but offers a series of handy tools for some XML vocabularies (such as XML forms). ## 11 Raymond Meester's list of XML editors[edit | edit source] The following list is contributed and maintained by Raymond Meester. We believe that it is the best XML editors list in the known universe ... - Daniel K. Schneider 17:20, 16 March 2011 / 02:08, 19 September 2011 (CEST). This list is now longer maintained, 15-05-2019. Check latest on github: List of XML Editors List of XML editors Name (Wikipedia link) | Version | Software license | Type | Homepage | | | | Adobe Framemaker | 2019 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker.html Alternate Textbrowser | 3.390 | Freeware | Standalone | http://www.alternate-tools.com/pages/c_textbrowser.php?lang=ENG Arbortext | 6.0 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.ptc.com/product/arbortext/editor Edit Pad Pro | 7.6.5 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.editpadpro.com/editxml.html EditiX | 2019 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.editix.com/index.html FontoXML | 7.6.2 | Proprietary | Standalone | https://documentation.fontoxml.com/editor/latest/release-notes-3098633.html HTML-KIT | 2017.03.21 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.htmlkit.com/ IQ-XML | 6.0.9056 | Freeware | Plugin | http://www.paresi.net/clarion/ Jedit XML Plugin | 5.5.0 | GNU GPL | Plugin | http://www.jedit.org/ Komodo IDE | 11 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.activestate.com/downloads#4 Liquid XML Studio | 2019 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.liquid-technologies.com/ Lope Edit | 5.8 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.lopesoft.com/en/lopeedit/download MyEclipse | 2019.4.0 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.myeclipseide.com/module-htmlpages-display-pid-15.html Notepad++ XML Tools | 2.4.11 | GNU GPL | Plugin | http://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-plugins/files/XML Tools/ Oxygen XML Editor | 21.1 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.oxygenxml.com/ Qxmledit | 0.9.13 | GNU GPL | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/qxmledit/ Smart Dataset-XML Viewer | 2018-06-21 | Freeware | Standalone | https://sourceforge.net/projects/smart-sds-xml-viewer/ StructuredXmlEditor | 1.8.0 | Apache | Standalone | https://github.com/infinity8/StructuredXmlEditor Stylus Studio | X16 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.stylusstudio.com/ VEX | 1.2 | EPL | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/vex Webtools Platform | 3.13 | EPL | Plugin | http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/ XMetaL | 14.0 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://na.justsystems.com/content-xmetal-author XML Tree Editor | 0.1.0.32 | GNU GPL | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmltreeeditor XMLBlueprint | 16.190615 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.xmlblueprint.com/ XMLFox | 8.0 | Freeware | Standalone | http://www.xmlfox.com/download.htm XMLMind | 9.0 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/ Xmplify | 1.9.1 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://xmplifyapp.com XMLSpy | 2019 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://www.altova.com/xmlspy.html Xponent XML Max | 4.6.0.2 | Proprietary | Standalone | http://xponentsoftware.com/ XSEMMEL | 09-APR-2017 | BSD | Standalone | https://github.com/fcarver/xsemmel Xonomy | 3.5.0 | MIT | Standalone | https://github.com/michmech/xonomy/ List of XML editors (Archive) Name (Wikipedia link) | Version | Software license | Active | Type | Homepage | | | | | Ag101 | 3.2.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/ag101/files/ Antenna XML Editor | 3.2 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.antennahouse.com AntillesXML | 2.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.data2type.de/software/antillesxml/ AjRa XML Editor | 1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/ajraxmleditor/ Amaya | 11.4.4 | W3C | No | Standalone | http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ Angur | 1.0.1 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/angur/ as3-xmltexteditor | ? | MIT | No | Standalone | http://www.ohloh.net/p/as3-xmltexteditor AWS XML Editor (XMS) | 5.0 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | http://www.aws-dms.com/temp.php?use=templates/download.xml Barium Visual Xsl Transformer | 1.5 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.dunnsolutions.co.uk/products/visualxsltransformer/barium.html Batch XML Modifier | 1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | https://sourceforge.net/projects/batch-xml-modifier Beacon editor | 0.5 beta | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | Bonodi XML Editor | 2.12 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.download3000.com/download_35300.html Butterfly | 1.1 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | https://sourceforge.net/projects/butterflyxml/ BXE | 1.1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://freecode.com/projects/bitfluxeditor Buzz | Buzz2015 | ? | No | Standalone | http://buzz.sourceforge.net/ CE Viewer | 1.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | CEDIT XML | ? | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/ceditxml/ Civ4 Mod Editor | alpha 1 | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/c4me/ codefunk XML Editor | Release 1 | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/codefunkxmledit/ Conglomerate | 0.9.1 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://www.conglomerate.org/ crXML | 1.20 | MIT | No | Standalone | http://freshmeat.net/projects/crxml Dataset Editor | 0.2.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/dataseteditor/ Debugging XSLT stylesheets using the Saxon processor | 1.0 alpha | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | Dexter | 0.9.9final | Artistic Licence | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/dexter-xsl/ Dinamic XML Editor | 1.0.1245 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | https://sourceforge.net/projects/dlxmleditor/ D-XMLManager | 1.0 alpha8 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxmlmanager/ dom-editor | 1.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/dom-editor/ Doctored.js | 1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://holloway.co.nz/doctored/ Easy XML Editor | 1.7 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.edit-xml.com/index.htm Eclipse XML - XSLT Editor | 2.0 | Freeware | No | Plugin | http://www.japisoft.com/exslt/ Eclipse XSLT | 1.0.6 | Common Public Licence | No | Plugin | http://eclipsexslt.sourceforge.net/ Elf Data XML Editor | 2.41 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/ElfData-XML-Editor/3000-2352_4-7661.html EpcEdit | 1.2.6 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/epcEdit/3000-7241_4-75863114.html Essential XML Editor | 1.6.4 | MPL | No | Standalone | http://www.philo.de/xmledit/ EuroMath2 | 1.4.0 | MPL | No | Plugin | http://euromath2.sourceforge.net/ ExamXML | 5.50 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.a7soft.com/index.html Excel XML Toolbox for Microsoft Office Excel 2003 | ? | ? | No | Plugin | link eXed | 1.0.0.0 | Artistic Licence | No | Standalone | [1] Exchanger XML | 3.3.1 | Artistic Licence | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/exchangerxml/ ExtJS-xmleditor | r3 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/extjs-xmleditor/ EzXML Desktop | 1.0.1 beta | EPL | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/node/736 Flash XML Editor | 2.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | Free XML Editor | 1.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/Free-XML-Editor/3000-2351_4-75989968.html Foxe | 2.4.2.431 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.firstobject.com/dn_editor.htm GenDoc | 1.0 beta5 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://gendiapo.sourceforge.net/news/ Greg's XML Editor | 2.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://gregsxmleditor.codeplex.com/ Infox | 1.1 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.pabloware.com/infox.html iXedit | beta3 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://ixedit.sourceforge.net/ Java XML XPath Eclipse Templates | 1.5 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/java-xml-xpath-eclipse-templates Jaxe | 3.5 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://jaxe.sourceforge.net/ Jcam | 3.2.2 | OSL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/camprocessor/ JSimplex | 3.1 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsimplex/ Jsxe | 0.5pre2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://jsxe.sourceforge.net/ JXC | 1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://jxc.sourceforge.net/ KaliNews | 2.0.6 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://peccatte.karefil.com/Kalinews/EN/ MEX | 1.1 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://media4.obspm.fr/outils/mex/index.html MegaEditor | alpha | GNU GPL | No | Standaline | https://sourceforge.net/projects/megaeditor More Motion | 6.1 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://moremotion-xml-editor.soft32.com/ Morphon XML Editor | 3.1.1 | Freeware | No | Standalone | https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/wiki/toolbox/Morphon's Xml-editor.html MyXmlia | 1.2 | Freeware | No | Plugin | http://archive.is/http://www.myxmlia.com/ NiaoXML | 1.4.0.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://niao.de Open Exeed | 0.13 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://openexeed.sourceforge.jp/en/download.html Peter's XML Editor | 2.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.iol.ie/~pxe/download.html Pollo | 0.4 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://pollo.sourceforge.net/ PSGML | 1.3.2 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | https://sourceforge.net/projects/psgml/ Quark XML Author | 4 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.quark.com/Products/Quark_XML_Author/ QuickXML | 1.26 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/QuickXML/3000-7241_4-10246497.html Reitec Xml Editor | 1.3.2 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/REITEC-XML-Editor/3000-7241_4-75914605.html Rinzo XML Editor | 1.4.1 | GNU LGPL | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/rinzo-xml-editor Schema-Locked XML editor | 1.0 | GNU LGPL | No | Plugin | http://sourceforge.net/projects/sloxed/ Serna XML Editor | 4.4 | GNU GPL, Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.serna-xmleditor.com/ SketchPath | 3.5 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://qutoric.com/sketchpath/ Simple XML Editor | 1.0.0.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.eztools-software.com/tools/XmlGui/default.asp SIMQIN | 2.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.simqin.com/EN/SIMQIN-Simple-XML-Editor.htm Softcut OpenXML | 1.0.6.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/SoftCut-OpenXML/3010-7241_4-10911570.html?tag=mncol STDU XML Editor | 1.0.105 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.stdutility.com/stdu-xml-editor.html Steam XML | | Proprietary | No | Standalone | sxedit | ? | BSD | No | Standalone | https://github.com/gimsieke/sxedit TSX (Simple xml and xslt editor & transformer) | pre-alpha | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | https://kenai.com/projects/tsx/pages/Home TreeBeard | 0.95 beta | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/treebeard/files/ TreeLine | 2.0.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://treeline.bellz.org/index.html tX - Tabular XML editor | 1.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://www.gravitybind.com/news.php tuxpad | 0.6.9 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/tuxpad/ Umbraco XPath Evaluator | 1.0 | MIT | No | Standalone | http://umbracoxpatheval.codeplex.com/ Veloeclipse | 2.0.8 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/veloeclipse WFE Wordfile Editor | 1.4.1 | Proprietary | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/wfe-wordfile-editor#.UdHXuticHz4 X2U XML Editor | ? | Proprietary | No | Standalone | [2] Xacobeo | 0.13 | Artistic Licence | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xacobeo/ Xample | 2.2 | Apache License | No | Standalone | http://freecode.com/projects/xample Xcarecrows 4 XML 1.3.8 | 1.3.8 | Apache License | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/xcarecrows-4-xml Xdoc | 1.03 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xdoc/ Xeditor | ? | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.xeditor.com Xeena | 1.2 | ? | No | Standalone | http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xeena/download Xeena | 1.2 | ? | No | Standalone | http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xeena/download XENtrant | 0.2.2 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.treestages.com/ Xerlin | 1.3 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xerlin/ XicalXML-Editor | 1.58 | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xical-xml.berlios/files/ XMEdil | 0.4.1 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.brothersoft.com/xmedil-download-20791.html XML Buddy | 5.3 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.xml-buddy.com/ XML Code Editor | 0.91 alpha | MIT | No | Standalone | http://xmlcodeeditor.codeplex.com/releases/view/45990 XML Config Editor | 1.1.1 | MPL | No | Standalone | https://github.com/pstork/XmlConfigEditor XML Configuration File Editor (XFCE) | 1.8.4 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://www.softndesign.org/codes/python/xcfe/ XML Content Editor | 7.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | XML Copy Editor | 1.2.1.3 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://xml-copy-editor.sourceforge.net/ XML Developer Toolbar | 0.2 | MPL | No | Plugin | http://xmldeveloper.mozdev.org/ XML Edit Pro | 2.2 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://xmleditpro-2-2.soft-free-download.com/nl/ XML Editor | 2.0.1.6 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.asaapplications.com/asa/ XML Editor Tool | 6 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmleditortool/ XML Explorer | 4.0.5 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://xmlexplorer.codeplex.com/ XML Hack | 1.0.2 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.sysonyx.com/xml/products/xmlhack/ xml hammer | 1.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.xmlhammer.org/ XML Manager | 1.0 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xmlmanager/ XML Marker | 2.1 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://symbolclick.com/ XML Notepad | 2.7.1.5 | Microsoft Public License | No | Standalone | [3] XML Operator | 3.06 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.xmloperator.net/download.htm XML Slim | beta | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xml-slim/ XML Studio | 1.0 alpha | Microsoft Public License | No | Standalone | http://xmlstudio.codeplex.com/ XML Tree | 1.9.3 | ? | No | Standalone | https://sites.google.com/site/alanstroop/-home-alan-downloads XML Tree for Chrome | 2.0.1 | ? | No | Plugin | https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xml-tree/gbammbheopgpmaagmckhpjbfgdfkpadb XML Viewer | 4.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.mindfusion.eu/product1.html XML Viewer Plus | 1.0.1 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | link XML Vision Tool | 1.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | link XML Visualizer | 2 built 7.0 | CDDL | No | Plugin | http://xmlvisualizer.codeplex.com/ XML Webpad | 1.0 | MIT | No | Standalone | http://xmlwebpad.codeplex.com/ XML Workbench lite | ? | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlwb/ XML Wrench | 1.3.2.16 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.xmlwrench.com/download.html XML+XSL | 1.5.12 | Freeware | No | Standalone | xml-text-editor | 0.0.3 | Apache License | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xml-text-editor/ xmlj | 0.6 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlj/ XMLMate | 1.4.3 | BSD | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xmlmate/ XMLOpt | 1.0.0 | ? | No | Standalone | http://scriptella.javaforge.com/project/2412 XMLPad | 3.02a | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/XmlPad/3000-7241_4-10252051.html XMLPro | 2.01 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.vervet.com XMLQuire | 1.17 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://qutoric.com/xmlquire/ XMLQuire Web Edition | 1.0 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://qutoric.com/xmlquire/ce/ XmlShell | 1.5 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.softgauge.com/index.htm XMLSpear | 3.10 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.donkeydevelopment.com/#downloads XMLVisualiser | 0.5b | ? | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlvisualizer/ XMLWriter | 2.7 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://xmlwriter.net/ XNGR XML Browser | 2.0 beta | MPL | No | Standalone | http://xngr.org/ Xopus | 4.3 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://xopus.com/ Xpath Explorer | 1.0 | BSD | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xpe/ Xpontus | 1.0.0.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://sourceforge.net/projects/xpontus/files/ Xray | 2.1 build 10 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/XRay-XML-Editor/3010-7241_4-10166163.html Xselerator | 2.6 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/MarrowSoft-Xselerator/3010-7241_4-10068192.html xsl:easy | 4.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/xsl-easy/3000-7241_4-10445754.html xsledit | ? | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xsledit/ XSL Editor | 1.0.0.2 | GNU GPL | No | Standalone | http://code.google.com/p/xsleditor/ xslfast | 6.0 | Proprietary | No | Standalone | http://www.xslfast.com/ Xslide | 0.2.2 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | http://www.menteith.com/wiki/xslide Xstream | ? | BSD | No | Standalone | http://xstream.tigris.org/ Xtrans | 1.8.0.2 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://www.simxtech.com/users/zc2/xtrans/ XtreeM | 0.976 | Freeware | No | Standalone | http://download.cnet.com/XTreeM/3000-7241_4-10337412.html Ymacs | 0.5 | BSD | No | Standalone | http://www.ymacs.org/ Zen Coding | 0.7 | GNU GPL | No | Plugin | http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/zen-coding ## 12 Links[edit | edit source] ### 12.1 Various[edit | edit source] * What XML software is available ? (XML FAQ section). * Choosing an XML editor by Thijs van den Broek. A detailed evaluation of various editors (in 2004). ### 12.2 Lists of XML editors[edit | edit source] * Editors at O'Reilly xml.com (Good long list, but no real help for choosing). * Editing and composition page at the excellent Free XML Tools site. Other tools * Json XML Formatter * Code Beautify XML-XSLT Transformation ## 13 References[edit | edit source] * Saqib Ali (2005), XML: WYSIWYG to WYSIWYM, A brief look at XML document authoring, Free Software Magazine, 3. HTML