Format XML with clean indentation, check that it is well-formed and jump to the line of any error.
An XML formatter is a tool that puts each XML element on its own line, indented under its parent.
An XML formatter reads the document by the rules of XML 1.0, the W3C standard, and writes it back with line breaks and indentation between the tags. A careful one leaves text, attribute values and CDATA sections exactly as they were. People also call it an XML beautifier, an XML prettifier or a pretty printer.
Our formatter also checks that the XML is well-formed as you type. When something is broken, the status line names the problem with its line and column, and Go to line jumps to it in the input. Minify mode does the reverse and removes the whitespace between tags.
Formatting XML is safe as long as only the whitespace between tags changes.
<name> Ada </name> holds two spaces on each side, and trimming them changes the value.<p>Hello <b>world</b> again</p> the spaces around <b> belong to the sentence, so the formatter leaves that element exactly as written.xml:space="preserve" keeps every space and line break inside it when you format or minify, as section 2.10 of the XML 1.0 specification intends.<![CDATA[ and ]]> keeps its spaces and line breaks in both modes.<m:Get xmlns:m="urn:x">1</m:Get> keeps the value 1 on its line. Four popular online XML formatters we tested in September 2026 turned that value into 1 followed by a line break and tabs.Paste XML into the input box, and the formatted copy appears in the output box.
This one-line XML order will be converted to a tree with 4-space indentation, the default setting:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><order id="1042"><customer>Ada Park</customer><items><item sku="KB-01" qty="1">Mechanical keyboard</item><item sku="MS-07" qty="2">Wireless mouse</item></items><tracking xmlns="urn:example:ship">TRK-20931</tracking><note>Leave it at the <b>side</b> door.</note></order><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<order id="1042">
<customer>Ada Park</customer>
<items>
<item sku="KB-01" qty="1">Mechanical keyboard</item>
<item sku="MS-07" qty="2">Wireless mouse</item>
</items>
<tracking xmlns="urn:example:ship">TRK-20931</tracking>
<note>Leave it at the <b>side</b> door.</note>
</order>The <tracking> value stays on one line even though that element declares its own namespace. The note keeps its sentence exactly as typed, because it mixes text with a <b> tag. Switch to Minify and the formatter turns the tree back into the original single line.
You can format XML online, in a code editor, or from the command line.
| Method | How to format | What to install | Error checking | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CodeShack XML Formatter | Paste the XML or open the file | Nothing | Well-formedness, with line and column | Quick checks and one-off files |
| Notepad++ | Plugins, XML Tools, Pretty print | The XML Tools plugin | Syntax check, plus XSD and DTD validation | Windows users who already edit in Notepad++ |
| Visual Studio Code | Format Document, Shift+Alt+F on Windows | An XML extension, such as XML by Red Hat | Syntax errors, plus XSD and DTD validation | XML files inside a code project |
| xmllint | xmllint --format file.xml | libxml2 | Well-formedness, plus XSD with --schema | Scripts and servers |
| Python | ElementTree.indent() | Nothing, from Python 3.9 | The parser stops at the first error | Formatting inside a program |
Editors and command-line tools suit XML that lives in a project or a script, and they can validate it against a schema. An online XML formatter suits a quick look at one file on any computer, with nothing to install.
These three XML mistakes stop a file from being well-formed.
AT&T gets the error "A bare & must be written as &", because & always starts a reference in XML, such as < or ©. Write AT&T instead. and © are built into HTML but not into XML, so the checker reports "The entity is not defined". Use the number instead,   or ©.<?xml version="1.0"?> breaks the file, because the declaration has to be the very first thing in it. Delete everything above it.People format XML to read it, to find a bug in it, or to compare two versions.
To browse a large document as a collapsible tree, open it in the XML Viewer. To turn XML into JSON, use the XML to JSON Converter, and to put elements in order, the XML Sorter.
An XML beautifier reads XML into a tree of elements, then prints it again with indentation. A careful one changes only the whitespace between tags, never the text, attribute values or CDATA sections.
Install the XML Tools plugin in Notepad++, then choose Plugins, XML Tools, Pretty print. The same plugin can also check the syntax and validate the file against an XSD or DTD.
Well-formed XML follows the syntax rules of XML 1.0, such as having one root element. Valid XML is also well-formed and matches a schema such as an XSD or DTD, which an XML validator or linter checks.
Formatting XML should change only the whitespace between tags. Our formatter leaves text, attribute values, CDATA sections and elements that use xml:space to preserve whitespace exactly as they were.
Open the XML file in an XML formatter to get one element per line with clear indentation. For a collapsible tree instead of text, open the file in an XML viewer.
Yes, XML is still in wide use. Sitemaps, RSS feeds, SVG images, SOAP web services, Android layouts and the files inside .docx and .xlsx documents are all XML.