Edit the XML source

In the Oxygen editor, if you want to edit the structure and content in your document as only XML code, you can switch to a mode where you only see text surrounded by tags. This is helpful if you only want to focus on editing the document structure and don't need to see images.

Tips and tricks

  • You may or may not see element IDs. An administrator can configure an element to never be assigned an ID.

    For example, if a Ditabase component is created or imported into Inspire, normally an ID is automatically added to the root level <Dita>. For Ditabase, this ID makes the component invalid when opened in the XML editor because ID is not allowed on a Dita component.

    If an element is configured to not use IDs:

    • When content is imported, no ID is generated
    • In the Oxygen editor, no ID is generated when the Generate IDs or Save and Submit options are used
    • This behavior is enforced even if the automaticIds option is turned on.
  • If you make a coding error, you only see a warning when you try to save the component.

    • You can fix the error in Edit XML source mode and try again to save your changes.
    • You can also Switch to Author mode and use the right panel option for validation.

      The Validation pane provides you with a More details link to learn more about the XML language rules.

      Check for errors in the Validation pane

To edit the XML source:

  1. Click Components_TopMenuOpt Components.
  2. In the Folders pane, navigate to the folder where you've saved the component.
  3. In the Components pane, select the component you want to open.
  4. To open the file in the Oxygen editor, double-click the component.
    You can also open a component in the following ways:
    • To select the row, click it, then right-click and select Edit...
    • To select the row, click it, then click and select Edit...
  5. By default Oxygen opens a component for editing in Author mode. To switch to Edit XML, do one of the following:
    • In the editor, click and then select Edit XML Source
    • Use the keyboard shortcut keys Alt+fn+F5
  6. You can edit any of the code or text directly in the center pane.

    For help writing XML code for a DITA topic, refer to Oxygen's XML guide: Introduction to DITA 1.3

  7. Optionally, if you need to undo a change, in the toolbar, click Undo.

    The Oxygen editor allows you to undo up to 200 changes.

  8. Optionally, if you to re-do a change, in the toolbar, click Redo.
  9. You can hide attribute tags by clicking Hide Ids.

    Important notes:

    • When attribute IDs are hidden, element tags and link references are still displayed.

    • If you manually type in code to add an attribute after you Hide Ids, the attribute code is displayed until you Save and Submit your changes and re-open the component to hide the newly added attribute code.

    • You can select the Show Ids button to show attribute IDs again.

  10. To make changes to the document in a visual editor, select Switch to Author mode.
  11. To save your changes, do one of the following:
    • Save. Keep a copy your changes locally and keep the editor open.
    • Save and Submit. Upload your changes to the Inspire database and close the Oxygen editor.

      You may be prompted to enter a check-in comment.

      If an administrator turns on an optional feature, you are prompted to enter a comment.

      The comment is optional and can be left blank.

      • If no comment is entered and the user selects Save or Cancel, only the changes to the component are saved and the Oxygen editor closes.
      • If a comment is entered and the user selects Save, both the changes to the component and the comment are saved. The comment can be seen in a Comments column in the following places: Components browser (hidden by default), Component's History record, Changesets tab.

      If you can Edit References In Place, and you make changes only to an expanded reference, then your comment will appear only in that edited component's History record.