Notepad++ is an Editor for source format with the following features.

  • Indentation format
  • Syntax Highlight
  • Edit files of any type
  • file validation

Notepad++, like any other editor, starts as a simple editor, but you can configure and install plugins to get additional features.

Notepad++ has an XML TOOLS plugin that provides a lot of features validation, format auto comments

How to open XML Files in Notepad++?

The XML file contains tags and strings with rules, So these files can be opened in Notepad++ directly, modified, and saved the files.

It supports opening and reading larger XML files by reading XML content into memory, So Notepad++ throws an Out Of Memory Exception If the file is in size of GB.

How to format XML file in Notepad++

In Notepad++, the Following are step-by-step guide to pretty print xml in Notepad++

  • Click on the Plugins Menu and select Plugins Admin
  • In the Search box, Type pretty XML and Check XML Tools Checkbox, and click on Install.

Beautify format XML in Notepad++

  • This installs XML plugins in Notepad

  • Open XML file in Notepad++

  • Click on the Plugins Menu, Select XML Tools -> Pretty Print or Pretty Print - Indent attributes or Pretty Print - Indent only option, or you can choose the shortcut key CTRL+ALT+Shift+A or CTRL+ALT+Shift+A command.

  • You can see the below image for more options Beautify format XML in Notepad++

  • This formats the XML content with a pretty print

How do I enable syntax highlighting for XML files in Notepad++?

Syntax Highlight is an important feature of any Editor for enhancing user readability with text colors.

Notepad++ includes the ability to configure user-defined files with syntax highlighting.

Syntax highlight is already enabled by default in XML.

You can enable it by Selecting the Language Menu -> X -> XML and It highlights color syntax for XML files for opening in the editor.

You can still configure and change the colors with the below steps.

Go to Settings -> Style configurator - Select XML language.

With these steps, you can change styles for the below things.

  • Foreground and background color
  • Change font styles like font size, Bold, Italic, and Underline
  • Styles for double and single quote text
  • Boolean and number text styles

XML validation with Notepad++

Notepad++ has support for the validation of XML file content.

Validation can be done using Plugin Menu -> XML Tools ->Validate option or you can use shortcut CTRL+ALT+Shift+M. It asks for an XML schema to validate against and display errors.

If these things are not working, you can check online XML validators for the desired thing.