Question 1

How do I format XML?

Accepted Answer

Paste the XML, choose 2 spaces, 4 spaces or tabs, and click Format. Each element goes on its own line indented by its depth; short text content stays on the same line as its tags; comments, CDATA sections and the XML declaration are preserved as they are.

Question 2

Does it validate the XML?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the browser’s own XML parser checks well-formedness first, and the error message names the line and column: unclosed tags, mismatched names, unescaped ampersands and stray characters. Formatting still runs on invalid input so you can see the structure, but fix the error before using the result.

Question 3

What does minify do to XML?

Accepted Answer

It removes whitespace between elements, line breaks and (by default) comments, producing a single line that is typically 20–40 % smaller. Text inside elements and CDATA is untouched, so the document means exactly the same thing.

Question 4

Is my XML uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. The formatter is plain JavaScript that runs on your device; configuration files, SOAP payloads or exports with personal data never leave the browser.

Question 5

Can it format SVG, RSS, XHTML or Android layouts?

Accepted Answer

Yes — they are all XML. For HTML that is not well-formed (unclosed
or

tags), use an HTML formatter instead; the XML parser will flag it as invalid.

XML Formatter

What the formatter does

Frequently asked questions

Related tools