XML Notepad

Free XML editing with tree view and validation

XML Notepad is a focused Windows tool for opening, browsing, and editing XML documents without the clutter of a full development environment. Published by Microsoft as an open-source editor, it is aimed at users who work directly with XML files and want a clearer way to understand their structure.

The main appeal is its split approach to editing. Instead of showing only plain text, XML Notepad presents documents in a tree view, making it easier to move through nodes, attributes, and values. This is especially useful when a file is deeply nested or difficult to follow in a standard text editor. You can also use incremental search in both tree and text views, which helps when locating specific elements inside larger documents.

For editing, the software includes practical tools such as drag-and-drop tree editing, namespace-aware copy and paste, infinite undo and redo, and in-place multi-line editing for larger text values. The find and replace feature supports regular expressions and XPath expressions, which gives experienced users more control when making targeted changes.

XML Notepad also includes real-time XML schema validation, helping users spot structural errors while they work. Additional features include IntelliSense, XInclude support, XSD annotations, custom editors for date and time data types, a Go to definition tool, and an XML Diff utility for comparing files. An integrated HTML viewer can display XML stylesheet processing instructions, which is useful when checking XSLT transformation output.

The program is best suited to developers, IT users, and technical editors who regularly handle XML. It is not a general-purpose coding platform, and users with no XML background may find some tools difficult at first. Its language support is also narrow by design. Still, for Windows users who need a dedicated XML editor with validation, navigation, comparison, and structured editing tools, XML Notepad remains a practical and dependable choice.