Having been inspired by Frogboy's recent modding videos; I've come to the conclusion that I really need an XML Editor. MS Notepad worked for some limited Civ4 and TripleA tweaks, but it is apparent that I really need an editor. I've looked around a little and checked out CNET's offerings; but have no clue as to what criteria I should be looking for. I can't afford to buy one at the moment, heck I can't even afford the game yet. I would like to get acquainted with an editor while I wait for the game. At some point, if I can whittle down my "to learn" list, I may seek some XML Authoring learning. But for now...
Does anyone have any recommendations for a free XML Editor which would work particularly well for modding Elemental?
XML Marker works well for Civ4, I don't know about Elemental because I'm not in the beta.
You could always try the windows version of vi.
http://www.vim.org/
Later,LAR
Notepad++
http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/index.php?title=Plugin_Central#X
This++
Not sure if XML Editing is modified in Visual Studio Express compared with Visual Studio Ultimate, but if it is not, VS is a very good tool too.
Seriously++
Thanks for the suggestions folks! Notepad++ it is.
Thanks to the power of YouTube, and the goodwill of numerous contributors, I got a good demo of it. Was impressed by its simplicity coupled with a wide range of capabilities. And the idea of open source collaboration just makes me happy. I hadn't known that all those scripting languages would be supported under one roof. Among that list; XML, Python, HTML, Java and Javascript are things I've recently wanted to play around with. And just for the fun of it, this post was written using Notepad++ :~) I tried writing the HTML for it, but when I pasted it to the forums some of the tags were altered. Is that because some other program like Javascript(?) is used for the reply box?
Thanks for the Notepad++ recomendation! It's provided me an impetus to explore new horizons beyond XML. And I'm finding the basic text editor (+ spell checker) to be useful already.
RE:
Yes, the editor here does use javascript. I believe they're running a TinyMCE derivative that they forked a few months back. Notepad++ is pretty good for most people who don't need a full-blown IDE, and it does tabs if you open more than one document.
Did you write html in notepad++ and try to paste it directly into this window and have it not show up right? What you do in that case ise click the "html" button in the editor window of the forums reply section and paste it there. It should show up fine.
+1 karma? : )
Holy crap this is TinyMCE... and it's output doesn't look like pure garbage. Kudos to you Stardock.
XML Marker has been known to incude some baaad characters on save. I recommend Notepad++ as well. It is freeware available at download.com. Once installed, you can download the XML Tools plugin which gives some nice enhancements.
I use this app every stinking day and it makes my life easier and puts food on the table.
I never had such problems with it when editing Civ4 files. But maybe it's because I didn't make any big changes using it, only changed a number here and there. I liked it because it allows displaying the data as a table, with sorting etc.
For bigger changes, like adding or removing entire entries, I used the standard Notepad (but Notepad++ sounds interesting, I'll try it when I need to edit XML files again).
I could not get the second link to work?
Line
Forum went boom...
And boomed again
and again.
That would be your problem. Leave out the html and body and header tags and all of that. Every page should only have one body tag, and the forum already has its own body tag, which will eventually contain the post you submit.
Now most html tags won't work in the editor, but you should be fine with <b > and <i > and some font tags.
The "insert code block" button is so you can write code and have it show up as plain text rather than actually doing the thing you tell it to.
Apologies for the guadruple posting.
Thanks TCores. I've looked for a posting guide but haven't found one. Is there any info available on what HTML tags will work? If not I may open a thread in the OT forum to test them out. I tried to learn from quoting a post which uses the extra code... Wintersong's Elemental for dummies, and then opening the source editor; but the only tags which show are {br /} {p} and { }. Perhaps only an OP has all the nifty HTML options?
Currently Quoting seems to break the HTML of the post you quote, leaving only BRs. (that didn't happen before) Try better viewing the source code of the page.
In the "Edit HTML source" you should be able to use the most common HTML tags(p, br, b, strong, i, em, u, table, tr, td, div, span...) and their properties (like style, for that so much needed CSS touch).
I hope that's what you were asking for.
Hehe I'm new to HTML so I don't exactly know what I'm asking for. Just looking for more posting options to better present info. Tables and rows and cells and spans and such interest me. Is good to know that we have those options!
some other REALLY nice apps are XMLSpy and LiquidXML. Both of which are pro level apps and require some cash investment. I use these at work as well, but will often fall back on Notepad++.
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