XML file: what is it and how to open it?

Quite often, many users of modern computer systems and software products of different types encounter files that have the extension .xml. Many simply do not know what kind of document it is, how to open it. Now it will be considered how to open an XML-format file. At the same time we will find out what it is and what it is for.

What is an XML file?

Let's start with the fact that, from the point of view of modern computer technologies and programs used to create documents of this type, the XML format is a text file in which the commands of the universal extensible language (Extensible Markup Language), which closely resembles the well-known HTML markup tool.

Typically, an XML file contains general information about an object that is expressed by descriptive means (more on this later). As for the data stored in such containers, these can be databases, often used for video and audio catalogs on the Internet, saved user settings of programs and applications, as well as entire web pages.

As an example, you can take, say, an audio album of an artist. The XML file includes information about the year of release, genre, number and title of tracks, popularity, etc. However, when visiting resources on the World Wide Web, the surfer does not need to think about the physical opening of such an information file, because even when playing the song online in the player All data will be displayed by the type of those that are contained in standard MP3-files in the form of ID3-tags. Information as it is loaded to the track being reproduced.

XML file view

If you look at the type of file, you can immediately notice that in it the properties of any object are described using tags and attributes that are set manually.

About the basic commands of the language itself, it does not go now, since the average user does not need such information. The only thing that can be noted is that only a certain number of elements used in describing an object in this format does not exist: as many as necessary, so many are specified.

How to open a standard XML format

Now let's see how to open an XML file. As already, probably, many have understood, this is a text file, which means that it's easiest to use for viewing or editing any, even the most primitive editor. Yes, though, the same "Notepad" from the standard Windows set.

However, not everything is so simple. The fact is that by double clicking the file without specifying the corresponding association with any program will not open. At best, the system will offer a list of the most suitable applications. You can select the program at your discretion, and at the same time check the box for the permanent use of the selected application for all files of this type.

You can do otherwise using the right click on the file and then choosing the command "Open with ...", then, again, select the desired application from either the list or specify the location of the main executable (most often an EXE file).

The third way to open an XML file is to start the program, and then use the file open menu (in most cases this is Ctrl + O). It is not necessary to use Notepad. Please, the file opens without any problems in the same Word application and the like. Even Microsoft Excel can open data of this format.

However, if you need to edit the XML-format, then it's better to use professional utilities with support for language syntax, for example, Oxygen XML Editor, XML Marker or EditiX Lite Version. Naturally, this is not all utilities that can work with the language of the file at the highest level. Today there are a lot of such programs.

Now a few words about why sometimes an XML file error occurs when you open it. Most often this is due to a violation of the integrity of the file itself, as well as the incorrect introduction of descriptive attributes or tags. In addition, in Excel, there is a limit on the limit of displayed rows, so in this case, the data at the opening may be incomplete.

Possible errors when opening an XML file as an e-mail attachment

Sometimes errors can occur when an attempt is made to open a file that is an e-mail attachment. Mostly this applies to standard mail clients like Outlook Express.

The matter is that at first the attachment is saved in the form of time data (very often with the addition of an additional .tmp to the main extension), and the reference is made to it.

To avoid such a situation, it is enough simply to initially save the attachment in the original format to any convenient place on the disk or on removable media, then use the standard methods described above.

Instead of the total

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in understanding the structure and ways of opening files of this format. Here, however, the issue of creating XML-data was not considered in principle, since for the full understanding of the process it is necessary to know at least the basics of the language itself. In the rest, I think, users will not have any difficulties with files of this format.