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Opening XML files -- how to? Login/Join 
Member
Picture of vthoky
posted
Good evening, all.

I'm writing to ask for help with opening XML files. I have an app from Carbonite that backs up SMS messages on my phone, and stores the backups as XML.

I have a selection of files now, from 43KB to something like 27MB. There's a stylesheet in the folder as well.

I can double-click on a small file, and it loads right up in Explorer without issue. Larger files, I would think, would work the same but take longer to load. But what I find is that larger files just don't load at all. I simply get an empty tab in Explorer.

Trying to load one of them directly into Excel (where I'd like for the data to end up anyway) doesn't go smoothly either. Excel asks me which stylesheet to apply, and I point it to the one in the folder. Then I get an error that says, "The file and format of [filename] don't match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe. [Blah, blah, blah.] Do you want to open it anyway?"

I tell it to open anyway, and it faults again, citing an XML parse error.

So. At this point, I can't open a large file and I can't cut it into smaller portions. Is there a better way?




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The One True IcePick
Picture of eyrich
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try notepad++




 
Posts: 858 | Location: IL | Registered: September 08, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of vthoky
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I can open them with notepad, but the copy-and-paste to Excel gets really messy -- lots of excess info.

I did just try opening one of the bad files with Firefox. Firefox points out a particular line and column where it faults. I can replace the short text string at that location with a known character (period, for instance) and the file will load. So it appears there is some sense to the idea that the file is fouled.

The next thing I find is that once I've fixed such errors and can open the file, any pictures that have come in (MMS, rather than SMs) do show up in Firefox, but a copy-and-paste to Excel dumps the pictures. Roll Eyes One trouble after the next, right?




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Notepad++

It is freeware with no strings attached. It opens all sorts of files.

Ken
 
Posts: 1049 | Location: Oklahoma | Registered: December 28, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The One True IcePick
Picture of eyrich
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Not notepad

notepad++
Very different products.
notepad++ is very powerful




 
Posts: 858 | Location: IL | Registered: September 08, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of vthoky
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quote:
Originally posted by eyrich:
Not notepad

notepad++
Very different products.
notepad++ is very powerful


I see now. Thank you.




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of jbcummings
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You ought to be able to open them with Excel IF they are well formed.


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Posts: 4306 | Location: DFW | Registered: May 21, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stop Talking, Start Doing
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quote:
Originally posted by eyrich:
try notepad++


That's what I use for XMLs at work


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Posts: 5070 | Location: The (R)ight side of Washington State | Registered: August 31, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of MrToad
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Another vote for Notepad++.




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Posts: 3342 | Location: SW Ohio | Registered: April 21, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of vthoky
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Got it!
Thank you all.




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Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of kimber1911
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Notepad++

Install then use the Plugin Manager to add XMLTools.

Pretty Print with line breaks will make the .xml easy to read.

If you ever want to edit a column TextFX is very useful as well.



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Posts: 5267 | Location: USA | Registered: December 05, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of fpuhan
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It sounds like you're using Windows. WordPad can open XML files and display them in proper format.




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Posts: 2857 | Location: Peoples Republic of North Virginia | Registered: December 04, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of henryaz
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As mentioned already, a good text editor. For Windows, notepad++. On my Mac I use my favorite text editor, BBEdit. All of the markup stuff is highlighted in different colors making it easy to pick out and edit the actual text. OS X/macOS has thousands of .plist files which control many facets of the working system and applications. They are all in XML format, and I regularly edit them with BBEdit (or vi, if it's in a root folder).



When in doubt, mumble
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I don't think you want to use excel. XML is 'tagged' data, excel will break that link, unless you import it into a structured row/column format. Depending on what all data is in the xml file, that ranges from trivial to impossible. It probably defeats the purpose of having the xml format in the first place.
 
Posts: 3297 | Location: IN | Registered: January 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Void Where Prohibited
Picture of WaterburyBob
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PsPad is also a good file editor, similar to Notepad++



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Posts: 16488 | Location: Under the Boot of Tyranny in Connectistan | Registered: February 02, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Karmanator
Picture of Chance
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Are you just double clicking on the XML file or are you importing it?

https://www.howtoexcel.org/pow...ry/import-xml-files/
 
Posts: 3276 | Registered: December 12, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of lkdr1989
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++ for Notepad++, also get the "XML Tools Plugin" for Notepad++.




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Posts: 4330 | Location: Valley, Oregon | Registered: June 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Comic Relief
Picture of Eponym
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I've heard that Notepad++ can be used for this. Roll Eyes
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: September 28, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of vthoky
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Thanks, all. Lots of mentions of Notepad++.
I hadn't seen it before, but a customer was in-house last week and used it to edit some Python files. It looks pretty neat; I'll give it a try.

Wonder if it will run on a Mac, too...?




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13428 | Location: The mountainous part of Hokie Nation! | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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No, but there are good MacOS options. I use Textmate myself for general purpose... or vi. For cross platform, there’s vi (really), or something like Atom.


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Posts: 2362 | Location: Roswell, GA | Registered: March 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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