How to make an XML file readable?

barneysplash · 22-05-2012 07:07PM #1

I have an xml file I would like to view as html.

The xml file is just symbols and letters, I know
this means something to programmers,
but I'm not a computer programmer!

I've looked around online, and from following some guides,
it says to open the file in a web browser.

I tried to open the file in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.

I get this message:

"This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it.
The document tree is shown below."

I then looked around and tried to understand style information, but then
it got technical above a level I can comprehend.

I'm looking for a program that can
translate the file to something readable.

Is this possible?

Thanks Barney

baords dyslexic · 22-05-2012 07:14PM

If you have MS Excel of any recent form then try opening you XML file with that?

Otherwise google for an XML Editor they format the XML so the data can be more easily read and edited.

barneysplash · 22-05-2012 07:21PM

I have Excel 2003, just tried as you said - still coming up as
just symbols and letters.

I had a look around online last night for an xml editor, but
what I found on Google didn't seem reliable and safe.

There were a lot of "FREE XML EDITOR 4 U!" types of program
and suspicious advertisements, so I did not download any of them.

Anyone out there know of a reliable, preferably free, xml editor?

Thanks for your efforts!

baords dyslexic · 22-05-2012 07:31PM

Try Notepad++

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

you should see all the data in the file just like plain MS notepad but the data and tags will be in different colours so you can see more of whats going on.

Then if you want safe then Microsoft have their own free XML notepad

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7973

btw whats the XML document you are looking at supposed to do and what data is in it, it could just be full of formatted data thats never going to be human readable.

conor.hogan.2 · 22-05-2012 08:40PM

I just open XML files in a browser and it shows as a tree.

onemorechance · 22-05-2012 08:44PM

Notepad++ should be good to use if it's an encoding issue with the current applications that you try to use.

stevenmu · 23-05-2012 09:11PM

If there's just a big blob of random characters and symbols, then there's probably binary data encapsulated in the XML. If that's the case then it's not designed to be human readable and you'll need to use whatever piece of software the XML is designed for, or at least whatever piece of software the binary blob is for.

If there are legible bits to the XML file then they may give some clues.

DublinDilbert · 24-05-2012 02:19PM

barneysplash wrote: »

I have an xml file I would like to view as html.

The xml file is just symbols and letters, I know
this means something to programmers,
but I'm not a computer programmer!

I've looked around online, and from following some guides,
it says to open the file in a web browser.

I tried to open the file in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.

I get this message:

"This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it.
The document tree is shown below."

I then looked around and tried to understand style information, but then
it got technical above a level I can comprehend.

I'm looking for a program that can
translate the file to something readable.

Is this possible?

Thanks Barney

Can you post an example of the XML file you have? You should be able to understand certain elements of it, but just looking at it in note pad

How to make an XML file readable?

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