oXygen XML Editor for Mac

User Reviews

• Exellent product

  A. HenketJune 6, 2006

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br /><p>oXygen helps you out whereever you would need it and stays out of your way if you don't. Just works as advertised and more. Rockstable, feature rich, and comes with a very responsive and knowledgable support team.</p> <p>Only disadvantage is the always a tad slower Java underpinning. I'm using it under Windows XP and Mac OS X without hassle.</p>

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• Superb cross-platform editor

  dsewMay 25, 2006

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I've been using oXygen for three years, since version 2.0. Over that time it has developed into a powerful, stable, and feature-rich XML editor. The oXygen team are extremely responsive to their user community; I've seen them get a bug-fix into a point-version release within a couple days of the bug being noted on their email list or forum. The developers are also active in the XML standards community, and in particular they keep up to date on developments in document-centric XML markup systems like DocBook and TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), which are well supported in oXygen. The developers are also very good about implementing feature requests. I use both Mac OS X and Windows versions of oXygen, and one of the people in my office runs it under Linux. The consistency of the Java interface means that you can create a single user-instructions document and have it be usable by authors/developers working on different platforms. We use it in an advanced programming environment, but we also introduce it to beginning XML authors who produce documents for us, and we have found that oXygen is intuitive enough that they can start working with it after only an hour or so of instruction. Unless you require a WYSIWYG XML editor, oXygen should provide just about anything that you're likelly to need in an XML/XHTML/XSLT/XQuery editor.

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• Excellent Update!

  MacHeadOctober 15, 2004

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />These folks just keep making it better and better! This is one of those must-have apps on my computer and really appreciate the continuous support and improvement. Great job!

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• Lacking in the editor department

  Chr. RothSeptember 16, 2004

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I have tested oXygen as an editor for XML files (not as an IDE or XSLT debugger). As such, I am missing still many convenience features: replacing a tag (not only surrounding), folding blocks, no entity insertion map, no way to select a Unicode character and make it a numerical reference (except for the special XML characters quot, apos, amp, lt and gt). For editing the structure of the XML, one has to open a completely separate editor - drag&amp;drop in the outline view which is already there in the outline view is not supported, as isn't in the XML source editor. Then, aided inserting of PIs is only possible in the separate outline view. For convenience and usability, there is much room for improvement: It does not cache known DTD PUBLIC IDs. So when you generate a new file and want to make it a certain DOCTYPE, you need to type in or browse to the SYSTEM ID, with no "recently used DTD" locations available for easy selection. It seems it doesn't gather too much info from the XML catalogs, where it might be able to reverse-track the PUBLIC ID from the file location of the local DTD. Also there's no easy way to add custom JARs (containing extension functions) from the UI to be able to debug XSLTs that make use of these. I guess this only works via system Java procedures like the endorsed dir or adding things in the application's package. What I really liked was the "contrast" setting of the coloring scheme to either focus on tags or focus on content. Also, the interface is well-thought and mostly intuitive (except for the strange structure editor component, which doesn't blend with the rest of the UI at all). The learning mode for DTDless XML for element names and attribute values is also very nice, as is the automatic insertion of required attributes. Defining "Tools" is a nice addition, as is (probably) the XSLT debugger which I haven't tested. Pretty-formatting code is a standard function, but nevertheless nicely implemented. Overall, it was probably the best general purpose XML editor for OS X with decent OS X support I have been testing. XMLMind's XML Editor is more suitable for editing documentation-like documents, esp. DocBook. But - and this is the big BUT - even if I spent ten times the money what oXygen costs, it looks like I still could not get ANY better product. And this is what makes me sad. Hey - XML now has been around for a while, and still there is no really (and I mean, *really*) cool, ass-kicking XML editor available for OS X? For now, I am back again at my plain old text editor - sad as it is.

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• Still one of the best

  VersionTrackerUserOpinionFebruary 6, 2004

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Oxygen is still one of the best apps around for working with XML on a Mac. It supports virtually all of the important XML technologies and languages, is reasonably priced, and actively updated.

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• Great editor...

  BurtcomAugust 15, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Not only did this progam teach me more about XLST, it helped me meet a deadline for a project. Speed is impressive on my TiBook despite the fact that this is a Java app.

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• captain pirxApril 25, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />1) Licence key did not work. 2) oxygen may be not shareware but tryware which in my eyes makes a difference

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• galegoApril 14, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Good overall, but 2.0 feels like a java app whereas 1.2.4 didn't. Any way to enhance the performance (kill the lag) or get 1.2.4 downloaded

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• VersionTrackerUserOpinionDecember 18, 2002

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This is the first Macintosh XML editor I can see using in an enterprise environment. It feels like a writer's tool and not just a

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• VersionTrackerUserOpinionNovember 25, 2002

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />i do not agree with you, dzurn1. elfdata is also slow on my iMac. and regarding the missing features: ElfData HAS NO XPath support, NO

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