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Using Atom to encode XML files

Written by Axelle Janiak, version 1 (2020-05-14)

If you want to use Atom to edit XML files, you will need to add new packages that are not among the core packages that you get by default while installing the editor.

Installing

Once you have installed Atom, go in your toolbar to the settings or Atom > preferences..., depending on your computer. In the opening settings, go to the tab +install at the bottom of the left panel.

install tag

Search the name of packages, see the list of possibilities in the following sections. Once it has found the package, click on install and agree to each dependency installation request.

search and install a package

It is also possible to install the packages from the Atom website. install from a website

Necessary packages to encode

You will need the following packages to be able to work:

linter-autocomplete-jing in order to validate and get schema support. Please note that the package needs Java (Java Runtime Environment (JRE) v1.6 or above) to be installed on your computer as well as the additional packages: busy-signal, intentions, linter and linter-ui-default. All those dependencies should be installed for you by default by linter-autocomplete-jing, while Java can be download from here. You might get error messages, but it will still work. It might be necessary to restart the editor.
If the installation have been successful, you will have a bottom toolbar that shows, at the left, after the path of the file, the linter info.

Optional packages to encode

wrap-in-tag a very simple package allowing you to wrap tags around the text, like the surroundings with tags... function of Oxygen. To use it: just select a word or phrase and hit Alt + Shift + w or right click and select Wrap in tag in the menu.

Use from the right Click

This will insert <p>...</p> around the selected text. You can then write the name of the tag you want in stead of <p> and make use of autocomplete.

select-text-between-tags this package allows you to select all the text between two tags.
double-tag edit one tag and the other is automatically changed to match.
tag automatically closes your tags.
atom-beautify automatically indents your markup.

Optional packages for Academic writing

pdf-view add a support to open PDF in Atom, so you don’t have to open a new tool while working.
zotero-citations adds Zotero support to Atom Markdown editing. To use it, you will need to have the Better BibTeX plugin installed in Zotero.
zotero-picker needs Better BibTeX plugin installed in Zotero, insert your citations if you write your research papers in markdown.
linter-retextjs natural language processor that includes plugins to check for bad prose. It uses the Retext dependencies.
highlight-selected find duplicates and see where you used certain words too often.
wordcount help you counting words.
typewriter to have a better layout.

Optional packages for Latex convinced

language-latex for syntax highlighting.
latex to compile the .tex files.

The package “copy-with-style” : ABCextended keyboard in Atom no longer seems to allow putting macron-marks over the long vowels. Some problems are also known with EasyUnicode keyboard.

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