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I'm not talking about a full-weight and size editor. I'm talking about something better than Notepad and faster to load and less bloated than Visual Studio.

Minimum requirements would be syntax highlighting.

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For viewing only Universal Viewer, uvviewsoft.com, can be used. It loads instantly. Choose menu View/Internet;Office to get the same kind of view as Internet Explorer's XML view. – Peter Mortensen Jan 15 '10 at 22:01
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12 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Since the answer below I've found this one which is decent: XML Explorer

XML Explorer

It's validating and has simple syntax highlighting. It doesn't have autocomplete however.

I've had exactly the same experience, Oxygen is completely overkill, and so is Altova and Liquid XML (but Liquid does have a free version).

XMLNotepad is fairly worthless and also has no source view. There's also another one on Codeplex called Greg's XML Editor (catchy). It's buggy though and has limited source highlighting.

I settled with Visual Studio mainly because it can load schemas in.

Notepad++ does node collapsing but doesn't have schema support from what I know. So there's no autocomplete with tags.

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Lightest here. If its buggy at least source is open so I can submit bug fixes. – Will Aug 19 '09 at 4:47
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You can get XML Validation with Notepad++ if you install the "XML Tools" plugin. – Nate Aug 20 '09 at 16:54
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up vote 15 down vote

I have been pretty happy with Notepad++.

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Fast. Light. With Highlighting. Use it all the time. – anonymous coward Jul 15 '09 at 21:40
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And bloated. Looking for something less bloated. – Will Jul 16 '09 at 13:31
Little bloated perhaps, though it has never been an issue. Since I use it for so many other things, including XML, it has become a staple in my standard toolbox. – Brettski Jul 16 '09 at 14:40
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What have you found with Notepad++ that makes it bloated to you? – Brettski Jul 16 '09 at 15:08
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np++ is alright, but its got some pretty trippy behavior sometimes, e.g. undo a CUT operation and see where the cursor lands. much different than any other editor i've used. i think the "bloated" comment was because the menus are so huge, it can be hard to find what you're looking for – bobobobo Jul 16 '09 at 22:55
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up vote 6 down vote

XML Copy Editor is sweet, simple, fast, free validating and open source.

enter image description here

Features (from the XML Copy Editor website):

  • DTD/XML Schema/RELAX NG validation
  • XSLT
  • XPath
  • Pretty-printing
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Folding
  • Tag completion
  • Tag locking
  • Tag-free editing
  • Spelling and style check
  • Built-in support for XHTML, XSL, DocBook and TEI
  • Lossless import and export of Microsoft Word documents (Windows only)
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up vote 5 down vote

Notepad++ with the XMLTools plugin, which adds:

  • XML syntax check
  • XML Schema (XSD) + DTD Validation
  • XML tag autoclose
  • Pretty print
  • Linarize XML
  • Current XML Path
  • Conversion XML <-> Text
  • Comment / Uncomment
  • XPath expression evaluation

enter image description here

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up vote 1 down vote

I'm pretty happy with Intype. It's very lightweight, supports many languages and it's inspired and compatible with Textmate bundles.

On the other hand, since I'm happy with it, I never really got a chance to test Notepad++ for a comparison.

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It's also missing half of some of the basic features an editor should have, but I agree, it's a project worth keeping an eye on. – ldigas Aug 20 '09 at 16:55
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up vote 1 down vote

Here are a couple of free XML editors.

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up vote 1 down vote

Free from Microsoft is:

XML Notepad 2007.

It is very simple, very clean and very fast.

I LOVE IT!

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up vote 1 down vote

Notepad2 is pretty awesome. It uses the same technology as Notepad++, but is as simple as Notepad. No extra tabs or other frilly stuff. But then again, no nice stuff like DTD checking.

Notepad2 Image

I know it's showing HTML at the moment, but it does do XML syntax highlighting as well as a whole bunch of other types of files.

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up vote 1 down vote

I am wondering why editplus was not mentioned so far. it is very simple straightforward to sue

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up vote 0 down vote

I'd recommend Notepad++, but since you find it bloated, how about Notepad2?

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up vote 0 down vote

Kind of old but flawless: XML Marker.

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up vote 0 down vote

This might fall outside of simple, but I found it to be pretty useful: Liquid XML Studio.

XPath Completion and hints

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