Editing XML Markup in Author Mode

Selecting XML Markup in Author Mode

Selecting XML tags in Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin is very simple with several methods for selecting entire elements:

Breadcrumb - Click the element (XML tag) on the breadcrumb displayed at the top of the editing window.
Outline View - Click the element name in the Outline view.
Full Tags Mode - While editing in Full Tags mode, click the start or end tag of the element in the editor.
Mouse Selection - While editing in Full Tags mode, click before the start tag of the element, drag the selection, and release the mouse button after the end tag.
Shift + Arrow Keys - While editing in Full Tags mode, place the cursor before the start tag of the element, press and hold Shift, and use the arrow keys to make the selection (including the end tag).

Note: If the selection does not include the entire element (for example you do not include the end tag of the element), Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin will automatically close the appropriate tags when pasting the copied selection. This ensures that the pasted content will always result in well-formed XML.

Using the Breadcrumb in Author Mode

A breadcrumb on the top stripe indicates the path from document root to the current element. It can also be used as a helpful tool to insert and edit specific elements in the document structure.

Figure 1. Breadcrumb in Author Mode

The last element listed in the breadcrumb is the element at the current cursor position. The last element is also highlighted by a thin light blue bar for easier identification. Clicking an element from the breadcrumb selects the entire element in the editor area and each element provides a contextual menu with access to the following actions:

Edit Attributes: Opens the in-place attributes editor that allows you to easily edit the attributes of an element.
Edit Profiling Attributes: Allows you to select the profiling attributes that apply to a certain element.
Append child: Opens a content completion list that allows you to select an element to be inserted as a child of the selected element.
Insert before: Opens a content completion list that allows you to select an element to be inserted (as a sibling) before the selected element.
Insert after: Opens a content completion list that allows you to select an element to be inserted (as a sibling) after the selected element.
Cut: Removes the selected element and copies it to the clipboard, while preserving the styles of the content.
Copy: Copies the selected element to the clipboard, while preserving the styles of the copied content.
Paste: Pastes a well-formed element from the clipboard at currently selected position in the breadcrumb.
Paste before: Insert a well-formed element (from the clipboard) before the currently selected element.
Paste after: Insert a well-formed element (from the clipboard) after the currently selected element.
Paste as XML: Inserts clipboard content that is considered to be well-formed XML content, preserving its XML structure.
Delete: Deletes the currently selected element.
Toggle Comment: Encloses the currently selected element in a comment if the element is not commented, or removes the comment if it is commented.
Rename Element: Opens the Rename dialog box that allows you to rename the currently selected element and other elements with the same name.

Tip: The tag names displayed in the breadcrumb can be customized with an Author mode extension class that implements the AuthorBreadCrumbCustomizer API. See the Oxygen SDK for more details.

Move Nodes

You can move XML nodes in the current document by using the following actions in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Move Up (Alt + UpArrow (Option + UpArrow on macOS)): Moves the current node or selected nodes in front of the previous node.
Move Down (Alt + DownArrow (Option + DownArrow on macOS)): Moves the current node or selected nodes after the subsequent node.

Tip: The easiest way to move nodes is to use the Alt + UpArrow (Option + UpArrow on macOS) and Alt + DownArrow (Option + DownArrow on macOS) shortcut keys.

Promote/Demote Nodes

You can easily promote or demote selected nodes (for example, within ordered lists or unordered lists) by using the following keyboard shortcuts:

Promote (Shift + Tab): Promotes an entirely selected node to be a sibling of its parent node (the list item is moved to the left). It also works for selections of multiple nodes as long as all the selected nodes are siblings (on the same hierarchical level).
Demote (Tab): Demotes an entirely selected node (the list item is moved to the right). It also works for selections of multiple nodes as long as all the selected nodes are siblings (on the same hierarchical level).

Join or Split Elements

You can join or split elements in the current document by using the following actions in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Join Elements: Joins two adjacent block elements that have the same name. The action is available only when the cursor position is between the two adjacent block elements. Also, joining two block elements can be done by pressing the Delete or Backspace keys and the cursor is positioned between the boundaries of these two elements.

Tip: Specifically, the Delete or Backspace keys can be used to join block elements in the following situations:

The cursor is located before the end position of the first element and Delete key is pressed.
The cursor is located after the end position of the first element and Backspace key is pressed.
The cursor is located before the start position of the second element and Delete key is pressed.
The cursor is located after the start position of the second element and Backspace key is pressed.

If the element has no sibling or the sibling element has a different name, an Unwrap operation will be performed.

Split Element: Splits the content of the closest element that contains the position of the cursor. Thus, if the cursor is positioned at the beginning or at the end of the element, the newly created sibling will be empty.

Rename Elements

You can rename elements by using the following action in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Rename Element: The element from the cursor position, and any elements with the same name, can be renamed according with the options from the Rename dialog box.

Surround Content with Tags (Wrap)

You can surround a selection of content with tags (wrap the content) by using the following action in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Surround with Tags (Alt + Shift + E)

Allows you to choose a tag to enclose a selected portion of content. If there is no selection, the start and end tags are inserted at the cursor position.

If the Position cursor between tags option is selected in the Content Completion preferences page, the cursor is placed between the start and end tag.
If the Position cursor between tags option is not selected in the Content Completion preferences page, the cursor is placed at the end of the start tag, in an insert-attribute position.

Surround with '[tag]' (Alt + Shift + ForwardSlash)

Surround the selected content with the last tag used.

Unwrap the Content of Elements

You can unwrap the content of an element by using the following action in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Delete Element Tags: Deletes the tags of the closest element that contains the position of the cursor. This operation is also executed if the start or end tags of an element are deleted by pressing the Delete or Backspace keys.

Tip: Specifically, the Delete or Backspace keys can be used to unwrap the content of an element in the following situations:

The cursor is located before the start position of the element and Delete key is pressed.
The cursor is located after the start position of the element and Backspace key is pressed.
The cursor is located before the end position of the element and Delete key is pressed.
The cursor is located after the end position of the element and Backspace key is pressed.

If the element has no sibling or the sibling element has a different name, an Unwrap operation will be performed.

Remove Markup from Blocks of Content

You can remove the markup from the current element by highlighting the appropriate block of content and using the following action in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Remove All Markup: Removes all the XML markup inside the selected block of content and keeps only the text content.

Tip: You can use the Delete or Backspace keys to remove markup, in which case the elements in the selected block will be unwrapped or joined with their sibling, or if the current element is empty, the element tags will be deleted.

Remove Text from Selected Markup

You can remove the text from elements by highlighting the appropriate block of content and using the following action in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

Remove Text: Removes the text content of the selected block of content and keeps the markup intact with empty elements.

Other Refactoring Actions

You can also manage the structure of the markup by using the other specific XML refactoring actions that are available in the Refactoring submenu of the contextual menu:

DITA-related Refactoring Actions

A variety of built-in XML refactoring operations that pertain to DITA documents with some of the information preconfigured based upon the current context.

Change Topic ID to File Name: Use this operation to change the ID of a topic to be the same as its file name.
Convert CALS Tables to Simple Tables: Use this operation to convert DITA CALS tables to simple tables. If you invoke this operation from a nested table (a table inside a table), only the nested table will be affected. If it is invoked on a parent table that contains nested tables, all of the contained tables will be converted.
Convert conrefs to conkeyrefs: Use this operation to convert @conref attributes to @conkeyref attributes.
Convert Simple Tables to CALS Tables: Use this operation to convert DITA simple tables to CALS tables. If you invoke this operation from a nested table (a table inside a table), only the nested table will be affected. If it is invoked on a parent table that contains nested tables, all of the contained tables will be converted.
Convert to Concept: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA Concept topic type (for example, Topic to Concept).
Convert to General Task: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA General Task topic type (for example, Task to General Task). A DITA General Task is a less restrictive alternative to the Strict Task information type.
Convert to Reference: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA Reference topic type (for example, Topic to Reference).
Convert to Task: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA Task topic type (for example, Topic to Task).
Convert to Topic: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA Topic (for example, Task to Topic).
Convert to Troubleshooting: Use this operation to convert a DITA topic (of any type) to a DITA Troubleshooting topic type (for example, Topic to Troubleshooting).
Rename Key: Available when invoked on a key, and can be used to quickly rename a key. It also updates all references to it. Note that it does not work on DITA 1.3 key scopes.
Generate IDs: Use this operation to automatically generate unique IDs for elements.

Attributes Refactoring Actions

Contains built-in XML refactoring operations that pertain to attributes with some of the information preconfigured based upon the current context.

Add/Change attribute: Allows you to change the value of an attribute or insert a new one.
Convert attribute to element: Allows you to change an attribute into an element.
Delete attribute: Allows you to remove one or more attributes.
Rename attribute: Allows you to rename an attribute.
Replace in attribute value: Allows you to search for a text fragment inside an attribute value and change the fragment to a new value.

Comments Refactoring Actions

Contains built-in XML refactoring operations that pertain to comments with some of the information preconfigured based upon the current context.

Delete comments: Allows you to delete comments found inside one or more elements.

Elements Refactoring Actions

Contains built-in XML refactoring operations that pertain to elements with some of the information preconfigured based upon the current context.

Delete element: Allows you to delete elements.
Delete element content: Allows you to delete the content of elements.
Insert element: Allows you to insert new elements.
Rename element: Allows you to rename elements.
Unwrap element: Allows you to remove the surrounding tags of elements, while keeping the content unchanged.
Wrap element: Allows you to surround elements with element tags.
Wrap element content: Allows you to surround the content of elements with element tags.

Fragments Refactoring Actions

Contains built-in XML refactoring operations that pertain to XML fragments with some of the information preconfigured based upon the current context.

Insert XML fragment: Allows you to insert an XML fragment.
Replace element content with XML fragment: Allows you to replace the content of elements with an XML fragment.
Replace element with XML fragment: Allows you to replace elements with an XML fragment.

Copying XML Content in Author Mode to the Clipboard

It is possible to copy the XML structure of a document to the system clipboard. Simply select the XML content in Author mode (for example, by selecting an element in the breadcrumb), and select Document > Edit > Copy as XML. The system clipboard will now contain the corresponding XML structure.