Need a new XML editor
 

Currently using EditPad ( http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html ) and love it. Problem is that when I save a file in the UI builder containing "<" or ">" in a LocalText area (button text, dropdown box, etc.), and open it in EditPad or Notepad to do large copy-and-paste jobs, it converts those to "&lt;" and "&gt;", respectively, and when I save it and re-open with UIBuilder it displays &lt; instead of <. I have to go through and do a search-and-replace each time I switch between the two.

What I need is a text editor that can read and save those characters in the same format that the UIBuilder does, will let me use the FixedSys font, has search-and-replace, and preferrably not cost anything.

Any suggestions?

Well, this isn't a good answer, but NotePad and WordPad work pretty darn well, with NotePad working better but not handling big xml files (unless this isn't an issue with WinXP NotePad, I don't recall).

Cons:
- With WordPad, if you copy from a web browser then paste it in else it'll screw up the file's format, so you have to paste into a blank NotePad first then recopy it (this strips the formatting like font, bold, etc.).
- No color coding, but you get over that pretty quick...

Pros:
- With NotePad there aren't any tricks, it's just as plain as can be.
- You can strip the stupid text file format header UIBuilder uses with NotePad.
- Free.

I imagine someone will suggest some actual xml editors, but just making sure you know stuff you already have works pretty well.

Quib

XP notepad fixed the character limit issues of previous versions, as well as adding find/replace instead of just find. It's what I use for modding (*snickers at self* modding, right) and web design.

I use TextPad for HTML, XML, php. Works great.

another free one -> Context

Editplus
http://www.editplus.com/

Shareware, but it's fully functional forever.

I love it. Actually, love it so much I registered it.

Incredible options.
Small & stable with syntax highlighting.
I've been doing all my asp and html and javascript and perl and css stuff in editplus for several years.

Try it, you'll like it.

Try Notepad2, it's what I've been using for a long time.

Tribal IDE is a great text editor I use for almost all coding I do. php, html, xml, c/c++, ect

It was originally created for a game that's code was simliar to c++, but I use it for everything. It's great, simple to use, and has color :p

Screenshot:
http://www.advancedmod.com/download/Tribal_IDE.jpg

Download:
http://www.advancedmod.com/download/Tribal.zip

Notepad, Wordpad: Same problem as Editpad

TextPad: Same problem

ConTEXT: Same problem

EditPlus: Same problem

Notepad2: Same problem

Tribal: Same problem



Screenshot of the problem, since apparently my description was insufficient:
From Editpad and all the other text editors:


How it should look (From FireFox and Internet Explorer, BEFORE saving with the text editors):

I see now. UIBuilder just parses it like that if it's found in a text string, or w/e it may be. You would have to get an editor that you can edit that stuff and how it displays.

Not just that. Opening the file with a text editor and saving will make it so UIBuilder doesn't parse it anymore. It shows up as &gt; and &lt; in UIBuilder and the game, and I have change them back before it will parse it again.

If one of those editors will take some special settings to save the text in the format UIBuilder can parse, please tell.

You could try this small editor XMLPad its freeware and has a tree structure on the left and works like a very simple version of the UI builder.

*EDIT* You will find it under Software >> Editors >> and scroll down the page a little way, she got loads of other usefull stuff on there as well I been using her stuff for a few years now, as nearly all of them are standalone apps.

Peter's XML Editor
http://www.iol.ie/~pxe/

if none of these others do it for you, I tried it and it works fine with PHP Coder Pro (aka PHP IDE). Dont remember where to download it though

I go back and forth between the UIBuilder and Wordpad all the time. The only thing I've noticed is once in awhile a file will get corrupt with "?" question marks in weird places and I have to go in and replace them. I justed saved a file with UIBuilder let me open it with Wordpad and see what it looks like.

Yup, works fine. I only ever open just the XML file I'm working on not the whole set. Never seen the problem you are describing.

OH!!!! You are putting < and > inside " marks. You probaly have to use the &gt; and &lt; to properly use these as characters and not XML syntax code.

Personnaly i use Homesite or Superdi, the + from homesite is that you can ask it to not translate all of your problem, the - is that it's not free, but you can find a very nice program and free made for a lot of devs which named

SuperEdi made by Wolosoft where you can find it here :

http://www.wolosoft.com/en/superedi/

you can manage color to sheme all langugae text, use ftp etc, a very nice program

"The only thing I've noticed is once in awhile a file will get corrupt with "?" question marks in weird places..."

This drives me nuts. Everytime I sort through someone else's EQ2MAP xml file, I have to fix all the screwed up symbols (they don't even appear as question marks for me until I copy the damaged area over to NotePad; in WordPad they appear as foreign language characters, Japanese sometimes for example).

Quib

use notepad2 , it doesnt screw it up at all i think someone posted a link for it a while ago.

My ColdFusion editor, which is a supped up version of HomeSite, can't handle the encoding either, but I've gotten to like the qurkie UIB since discovering the Play button actually mimics the game environment.

None of the handfull of free XML editors I tried that touted encoding options could deal.