Than to open XML-files: the elementary decisions

Undoubtedly, sooner or later users are faced with a variety of files that have an .xml extension. Not everyone, however, clearly imagine what it is and what to open XML-files. Let's try to understand the main questions, the answers to which will give an understanding of the structure of the file and the possibility of its discovery.

What is an XML file?

Let's start with the basics, because without understanding what exactly an XML file is, it will be impossible to select a program to open or edit it.

Generally, the extension .xml corresponds to the universal type of documents created with the help of a special extensible markup language, which somewhat resembles the tools of the well-known HTML language with the only difference that in this document the properties of the object or its description are determined by attributes and tags that are set manually.

You can meet XML files anywhere today. It can be a single database, specialized lists of settings for programs and applications, or even entire web pages. In addition, such files are used to create, for example, movie or music catalogs. In this case, for example, each film corresponds to one file, which contains attributes that indicate the genre, year of production, film studio, the name of the director and in general - any information relating to this picture. There are no limitations in the description.

In addition, before deciding how an XML file can be opened, it should be noted that this standard was designed as a universal standard to enable data exchange between programs. In other words, today there is no single application for all, which would open such a file by double-clicking.

Than to open XML-files: the elementary decision

As it is already clear, the standard method of discovery can lead to nothing. This is due only to the fact that several programs capable of doing this can be installed on the computer. At best, the system will offer to select the most suitable application, giving the user a list of programs to choose from.

Everything is clear with the Internet. The site of these files can not be seen, and the applet that opens them works in the background, which the user does not see. As for the question of what is easiest to open XML-files, then the most common "Notepad" is suitable here. Yes Yes! It was he.

Simply click on the file with the right button and select the command "Open with ..." from the menu, and then select the standard "Notepad". In general, such a simple discovery is due to the fact that files of this type, as well as HTML-documents, contain only textual information.

But if the user does not know the basics of the eXtensible Markup Language, then it's better not to edit with subsequent saving. Subsequently, specialized modules (especially if the source file contains a list of settings for any program) will give out an error in the application of content in the application itself, that is, the component will be either corrupted or unavailable.

Programs that open XML files

Now let's see which applications can work with files of this type. In this case, we mean the creation, editing and opening operations.

As already mentioned, XML is a text format, which means that the question of what to open XML-files is reduced solely to the choice of the editor that recognizes such data.

The most suitable for such purposes will be programs in the form of Notepad (Notepad ++ or something else), a regular Microsoft Word editor or similar Word Pad, specialized utilities with in-depth syntax support for the language like XML Marker, XML Pad, Oxygen XML Editor, EditiX Lite Version and many others.

By the way, you should pay attention that it is possible to solve a problem than to open an XML file on a computer, even with the help of the Excel spreadsheet editor, which is included in the standard office suite. True, large files may not open. There simply is a limit on the number of lines.

Finally, for normal browsing, not for editing content, you can open files of this type in any Internet browser such as Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome, etc.

Opening XML email attachments

But there is often a problem with opening files of this type when they are contained in email attachments, and in clients installed on the system (for example, Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook). Now we are not talking about mail servers.

Such applications are capable of issuing open (read) errors, since the attachment is first stored in a special folder in the form of a temporary file, and access at the time of opening is made to it. To get out of this difficult, as it seems to many, position, it is sufficient to first save the attachment with the original extension in any convenient place, using for this purpose a drop-down menu called by a right click on the file enclosed in the electronic message. After that, there should not be any problems with the opening in the same "Notepad".

Conclusion

That's all about the issue of opening XML files. If we sum up some results, it can be noted that the whole procedure is carried out quite simply with the use of any, even the most primitive text editor or Internet browser. But if you want to edit it, it's better to use special utilities that are able to check the syntax of the language in automatic mode, otherwise, if the structure of the same tag is broken, the file may simply be a meaningless set of symbols, and the program that uses it as an additional means of saving settings, And at all will cease to work.