Open XML File
Information, tips and instructions
Open XML File
XML file is a text-based format used to store structured information. XML files are formatted according to XML 1.0 specification and support Unicode and other language encodings.
XML format is considered to be human readable and simple XML files could be interpreted by most computer users. But XML files also could contain complex hierarchical information with multiple nesting levels which is better to be interpreted by the computer. Some XML files could also contain application specific information and are intended to be read only by the application code.
Depending on the purpose of the XML file it could be opened by different application.
- If the XML file is application specific, then you need to use the application which was used to create it to read it in order to represent information from the XML file in the readable form. It is still possible to open such XML file in text editor but the data inside it could be not easily readable by the user.
- If the XML file contains some data and no application is available to read it, you can open XML file in any text editor like Microsoft Notepad, Mac OS TextEdit or vim and try to read data inside it.
- Certain XML files contain configuration information and similar to previous case you can open them in text editor and make changes to the configuration.
XML files are editable, and you can do edits by just opening XML file in text editor like Microsoft Notepad or Mac OS TextEdit. It is recommended to be cautious about editing XML files because it is easy to break formatting of the file and make it corrupted and unreadable by applications. To make sure that correct XML formatting is preserved it may be better to read XML file using applications which control XML file formatting. These include:
You can open XML file in any of the applications above and see it rendered in a structured format where you can open and collapse sections of the file. You can also make changes to text inside the XML file and add/remove new data items. Below is an example of a simple XML file:
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
Open XML file in Windows OS
- If you know the application which uses that particular XML file use it to open it
- If you don't know which application uses XML file try opening XML file with internet browser, XML viewer or text editor to see what is inside
- You can use Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, UltraEdit, Visual Studio Code
- If the XML file in question was downloaded from the web application you may need to refer to that application manual to correctly process it
| XML Quick Info | |
|---|---|
 Extensible Markup Language | |
| MIME Type | |
|
text/xml
| |
| Opens with | |
| Microsoft XML Notepad | |
| XmlPad | |
| Altova XMLSpy | |
| XEditor |
