XML is an abbreviation of eXtensible Markup Language. HTML is a version of XML used to generate web pages in browsers. The great thing about XML is that you can use any tag you want and organize them any way you want. Many different document formats are based on XML, such as the DOCX format used in Microsoft Word. XML files can be viewed in most browsers, but each browser handles XML in its own way. You can host XML files on the web or on your computer.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Opening XML files with a browser
Step 1. Open Firefox, Chrome, or Safari
Step 2. Open the XML file
Click the URL of the XML file or click and drag the XML file into a new browser window.
Step 3. Go through the XML file
The XML tags are purple and the XML content is displayed as plain text. In Chrome and Safari, click on the arrows to open the tags or close. In Firefox, click - or + to open or close the tags.
Step 4. Save the XML file
If you are looking at the XML file on a website and want to save it, click the File menu and then Save. Choose a location to save the XML file and then click Save.
Method 2 of 2: View and edit XML files in Windows
Step 1. Download XML Notepad
XML Notepad is an XML viewer and editor, published by Microsoft. Go to https://xmlnotepad.codeplex.com and download the downloadable or standalone installer. The links can be found in Project Description.
If you have a Mac OS X, you can choose TextWrangler as a free word processor. It colors the tags in an XML file to make it easier to edit
Step 2. Install XML Notepad
Open the Notepad XML installation file you downloaded and follow the instructions to install it.
Step 3. Open an XML file with Notepad XML
Open Notepad XML. Click File and then Open. Locate an XML file on your computer and click Open.
Step 4. View the XML in Tree View
Tree View organizes the XML tags, in the sidebar on the left. Click the Tree View tab. Click on a tag to display the text within the tag.
Step 5. View the XML in XSL Output
The XSL Output view shows you the XML as you would see it in a browser.
Step 6. Edit the XML file
Edit the XML file as you would a text file. XML Notepad has many other tools for working with XML files.