Surely, sooner or later, users will encounter a variety of files that have the .xml extension. True, not everyone clearly understands what it is and how to open XML files. Let's try to understand the basic questions, the answers to which will give an understanding of the structure of the file and the possibility of opening it.
What is an xml file?
Let's start with the basics, because without understanding what exactly an XML file is, it will not be possible to select a program for opening or editing it.
In general, the .xml extension corresponds to the universal type of documents created using a special extensible markup language, which is somewhat reminiscent of the tools of the well-known HTML language with the only difference that in such a document the properties of an object or its description are determined by attributes and tags set manually.
Meet XML files today anywhere. It can be single databases, specialized lists of program and application settings, or even entire web pages. In addition, such files are used to create, for example, film or music catalogs. At the same time, let’s say, each film corresponds to one file, which contains attributes indicating the genre, year of release, film studio, director’s name and in general - any information relating to this picture. There are no restrictions in the description.
In addition, before deciding how to open an XML file, it should be noted that this standard was developed as a universal standard for gaining the ability to exchange data between programs. In other words, today there is no single application for all cases that would open such a file by double-clicking.
How to open XML files: the simplest solution
As already clear, the standard method of discovery may not lead to anything. This is due only to the fact that several programs can be installed on the computer that can do this. In the best case, the system will offer you to select the most suitable application, providing the user with a list of programs to choose from.
Everything is clear with the Internet. These files are not visible on the site, and the applet that opens them works in the background, which the user does not see. As for the question of how to open XML files the easiest way, the most usual Notepad is perfect here. Yes Yes! It is he.
Just right-click on the file and select "Open with ..." from the menu, 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 exclusively textual information.
But if the user does not know the basics of the eXtensible Markup Language, it is better not to do editing and subsequent saving. Subsequently, specialized modules (especially if the source file contains a list of settings for a program) will give an error using the content in the application itself, that is, the component will be either damaged or inaccessible.
Programs that open XML files
Now let's see which applications can work with files of this type. In this case, we mean the operations of creating, editing and opening.
As already mentioned, XML is a text format, which means that the question of how to open XML files comes down solely to the choice of an 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 a similar Word Pad, specialized utilities with in-depth support for language syntax like XML Marker, XML Pad, Oxygen XML Editor, EditiX Lite Version and many others.
By the way, it is worth paying attention that you can even solve the problem by opening the XML file on the computer using the Excel spreadsheet editor included in the standard office suite. True, large files may not open. There is simply a limit on the number of lines.
Finally, for normal viewing, and 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 of opening files of this type when they are contained in email attachments, moreover, in clients installed in the system (for example, Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook). Now we are not talking about mail servers.
Such applications are capable of generating opening (reading) errors, since the attachment is first saved in a special folder as a temporary file, and it is accessed when it is opened. To get out of such a difficult situation, as it seems to many, it’s enough to first save the attachment with the original extension in any convenient place, using the drop-down menu that is called by right-clicking on the file attached to the email message. After this, there should not be problems with opening in the same Notepad.
Conclusion
That, in fact, is all about the question of how to open XML files. To summarize, it can be noted that the whole procedure is carried out quite simply using any, even the most primitive text editor or Internet browser. But if you want to edit it, it is better to use special utilities that can check the syntax of the language in automatic mode, otherwise, if the structure of the same tag is violated, the file may turn out to be just a meaningless set of characters, and a program that uses it as an additional means of saving settings and completely stop working.