Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I cannot start XXE on Debian (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) Linux. Any hints?

A: If, when you try to start XXE on Debian (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) Linux, you get the following error messages printed on your terminal:

java.lang.NullPointerException
   at com.xmlmind.xmledit.util.FileUtil.fileToURL(java.io.File)
   (Unknown Source)
   at com.xmlmind.xmleditapp.start.Start.doScanAddonDir(java.io.File, 
   java.util.ArrayList) (Unknown Source)
... 
   at com.xmlmind.xmleditapp.start.Start.main(java.lang.String[])
   (Unknown Source)
   at gnu.java.lang.MainThread.call_main() (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0)
   at gnu.java.lang.MainThread.run() (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0)
[Loaded (pre-compiled) gnu.gcj.runtime.FileDeleter from <no code source>]

this means that you attempt to run XXE with a Java^TM runtime other than the one coming from Sun. The problem is that XXE really requires the Sun Java^TM runtime in order to run on Linux.

In order to fix this problem:

1. Download and install a JDK or a JRE from Sun (generally the latest, the best).

   Personally, I always download the ``bin'' distribution, not the RPM one, and I install it in /opt. By doing this, I cannot break any application (such as OpenOffice) which relies of the ``official'' Java^TM runtime included in my Linux distribution (SuSE).

2. Edit the XXE_install_dir/bin/xxe shell script and change:

   java $mem $opt ...

   to (for example):

   /opt/jdk1.5.0_06/bin/java $mem $opt ...

   The above example assumes that you have downloaded JDK 1.5.0_06 and that you have installed it in /opt.

Q: XXE starts on my Linux box but its window is blank. There are no error messages displayed in the xterm. What's going on?

A: This only happens with Java^TM 1.5 and Java^TM 1.6, with Xgl X servers such as those installed by default with Fedora Core 6.

Set environment variable AWT_TOOLKIT to MToolkit. Example:

~$ export AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit
~$ xxe &

More info in http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xgl_Troubleshooting#Incompatible_software.

Important

The combination XXE+Java 1.6+MToolkit has severe keyboard focus problems. Therefore as long as the Java/Xgl compatibility problem forces you to use MToolkit, please keep using Java 1.5. Do not upgrade to Java 1.6.

Q: I cannot type accented characters. I'm using XXE on Linux. Can you help?

A: Try setting the LANG environment variable before launching XXE.

Example for Spanish (bash command):

$ export LANG=es_ES.ISO8859-1

Example for Turkish:

$ export LANG=tr_TR.ISO8859-9

Q: I have successfully installed xxe*setup*.exe on my Windows® machine but after that, I cannot start the application. Can you help?

A: If you are using Windows® 9x, we cannot help you. Sorry but XXE is not supported on Windows® 9.x, only on Windows® NT, 2000, XP.

If you have installed XXE using xxe*setup-nojvm.exe (which requires to have Java^TM runtime properly installed):

1. Make sure that a Java^TM runtime version 1.5+ has been installed on your machine. (If this is not the case, the icon/launcher created by the installer should have displayed a error dialog box clearly saying so.)

   To check this, open a command window (AKA DOS window) and execute the following command:

   C:\> java -version

2. Please take the time to send us a bug report as explained below.
3. As a workaround, try to start XXE using xxe.bat instead of the ``icon/launcher created by the installer''.

   xxe.bat is found in the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE (by default C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin).

   In order to do this, edit xxe.bat using notepad and change the beginning of last line:

   start javaw

   to (following example assumes that you have installed the required Java^TM 1.5+ runtime in C:\Program Files\Java):

   start "XXE" "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin\javaw"

   (Quotes are very important in above example.)

If you have installed XXE using xxe*setup.exe (which includes a private Java^TM runtime):

1. Please take the time to send us a bug report as explained below.
2. As a workaround, try to start XXE using xxe.bat instead of the ``icon/launcher created by the installer''.

   xxe.bat is found in the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE (by default C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin).

   In order to do this, edit xxe.bat using notepad and change the beginning of last line:

   start javaw

   to (following example assumes that you have installed XXE in C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor):

   start "XXE" "C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin\jre\bin\javaw"

   (Quotes are very important in above example.)

Tracing what happens when the ``icon/launcher created by the installer'' is used to start XMLmind XML Editor

This launcher is file xxe.exe found in the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE (by default C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin).

The launcher is parametrized by file xxe.jstart found in the same directory. This file is a text file using the UTF-8 encoding. (If you modify it using notepad, make sure to save it as UTF-8.)

1. Open a command window (AKA DOS window).
2. Change current directory to the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE:

   C:\> cd C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin

3. Define an environment variable called VERBOSE_JSTART:

   C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin> set VERBOSE_JSTART=1

4. Start XXE using xxe.exe run from this command window:

   C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin> xxe.exe

5. When environment variable VERBOSE_JSTART has been set, xxe.exe creates a log file called xxe.jstart_log in the directory where you have installed XXE.

   C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin> type xxe.jstart_log

   Please send us () this file and also, please specify the exact version of Windows® you use, your locale and the exact version of Java^TM you use.

Q: XXE is supposed to support DITA but I don't see any way to create a new topic. Moreover when I open one of my DITA documents, I just get the tree view. Am I missing something?

A: Support for DITA is provided by an add-on called "DITA configuration based on the OASIS DTD". You need to download and install this add-on using menu item Options|Install Add-ons.

More generally, all our distributions just include a barebone XMLmind XML Editor. Unless you are an English-speaking user just interested in XHTML and DocBook, you'll almost certainly want to download and install one or more add-ons. To do that, simply please use menu item Options|Install Add-ons.

Q: I cannot download and install any add-on using Options|Install add-ons. Is there another way to download and install add-ons?

A: Please try the following workarounds (in the order of this list):

1. May be you have problems with the proxy server which is used by your organization. This proxy server is typically used each time your Web browser (or XMLmind XML Editor) attempts to make connections to the Internet.
   1. Use Options|Options, select the Proxies section.
   2. Check that your proxy server is properly declared here. If you don't know how to fill this form, ask your network administrator to help you.
   3. Click OK. Try again to download and install add-ons using Options|Install add-ons.
2. May be XMLmind primary download site is temporarily down.
   1. Use Options|Preferences, select the Install Add-ons section.
   2. XMLmind primary download site is specified by the following URL: http://www.xmlmind.net/xmleditor/_download/list.xxe_addon. Select it by clicking on the corresponding item of the list and use button Remove to remove it.
   3. Use button Add to add this alternate URL: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_download/list.xxe_addon (.net replaced by .com) to the list.

      As an alternative, you can drag the above URL from this page and directly drop it onto the list of ``servers''.

   4. Click OK. Try again to download and add-ons using Options|Install add-ons.

   A few hours later, after XMLmind primary download site has been restarted, do not forget to use button Reset to restore the default download URL (because www.xmlmind.com is much slower than www.xmlmind.net).

3. If the above workarounds have not solved your problem, we recommend this approach which should work in all cases:
   1. Use your Web browser to download from this page: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/addons.shtml, all the add-ons you are interested in.
   2. An add-on is packaged as a .zip file. Make sure to save all the downloaded .zip files to the same directory. For example, let's suppose this directory is C:\temp.
   3. Use Options|Preferences, select the Install Add-ons section.
   4. Turn "Download add-ons from these servers" off.
   5. Turn "Search add-ons in the directory" on and specify "C:\temp" in the corresponding text field.
   6. Click OK. Try again to download and install add-ons using Options|Install add-ons.

Q: XXE freezes when I try to open large XML files. Is there a workaround for this problem?

A: This is probably an out-of-memory error due to the fact that your XML file is very, very, large or contains loads of high-resolution images.

By default, XXE is configured to use at most 512 megabytes. This limit can be increased but this requires you to edit a script file using a text editor.

On Windows,

• If you start XXE using the ``icon/launcher created by the installer'' (file xxe.exe) in the Start menu:
  1. Go to the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE, for example C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin.
  2. Edit xxe.jstart using notepad. Make sure to use a version of notepad which supports the UTF-8 encoding.
  3. Change line:

     -Xss1m -Xmx512m

     to:

     -Xss4m -Xmx1024m

  4. Make sure to save your changes using the UTF-8 encoding.
• If you start XXE using the xxe.bat script:
  1. Go to the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE, for example C:\Program Files\XMLmind_XML_Editor\bin.
  2. Edit the xxe.bat script file using notepad.
  3. Change line starting with:

     start javaw -Xss1m -Xmx512m ...

     to:

     start javaw -Xss4m -Xmx1024m ...

On Linux/Unix:

1. Go to the bin/ subdirectory of the directory where you have installed XXE, for example /opt/xxe/bin.
2. Edit the xxe script file using a text editor.
3. Change line:

   mem="-Xss1m -Xmx512m"

   to:

   mem="-Xss4m -Xmx1024m"

On the Mac:

1. Using the Finder, Ctrl-click or right-click on the XMLEditor icon and then choose "Show Package Contents" from the pop-menu in order to open the application bundle.
2. From there, go to the Contents folder.
3. Edit the Info.plist file using the Property List Editor (which is the default application to do that).
4. In the Java section, change line:

   VMOptions String -Xss1m -Xmx512m

   to:

   VMOptions String -Xss4m -Xmx1024m

Q: XXE crashes when I try to convert large XML files to PDF. Is there a workaround for this problem?

A: See answer to previous question.

Q: XXE seems to freeze when I do such and such action. What's going on?

A: You have probably found a bug and a low-level error message (an exception stack trace) has probably been printed on the console.

Please take the time to send an email to , describing what you did and containing a copy of this low-level error message. A screen shot of the console is fine but note that it is the start of the error message which is meaningful, and not its end.

Now the question is how the display the console on which XXE prints its low-level error messages.

On Windows, you need to force XXE to use java.exe rather than javaw.exe.

In order to do this, please edit xxe.jstart using notepad and change this line:

start jre\bin\javaw.exe

to:

start jre\bin\java.exe

Make sure to save xxe.jstart using the UTF-8 encoding (normally this is done automatically by notepad).

On the Mac, open the Console application which is found in /Applications/Utilities/, then start XXE.

On Linux, simply start XXE from an xterm.

Q: I just downloaded XXE and opened a few of my XML documents with it. It works fine except that all I can see is a tree view. How can I get a word processor-like view for my documents?

A: Please take the time to read the Configuration and Deployment document. This document explains how to write a configuration file for XXE.

Writing a simple configuration file plus a few template documents for a custom DTD takes 10 minutes. Specifying a custom menu and/or custom tool bar buttons is also quick and easy. Writing a CSS style sheet may take several hours but it's worth doing it.

Q: I get a lot of errors when I open one of my XHTML documents. I'm sure these documents are valid. Why does XXE report such false errors?

A: You have opened an XHTML document conforming to the Transitional DTD and this document, not having the proper <!DOCTYPE> at the top of it, is considered by XXE as conforming to the Strict DTD. More information in XMLmind XML Editor - XHTML Support.

Q: Certain elements seem impossible to select when displayed in the styled view. Is there a way to select them without switching to the tree view?

A: Please take the time to read XXE tutorial.

Q: I've inserted an emphasis element and typed some text in it. Now I would like to type plain text but I'm stuck in this emphasis element. What can I do?

A: You need to insert a text node after the emphasis element. The quickest way to do so is simply to press on the Insert key (the F1 key on the Mac, which has no Insert key). This kind of tip is described in Being Productive with XXE.

Q: The Edit tool is tedious to use. Is there a quicker way to insert elements?

A: Please take the time to read Being Productive with XXE.

Q: Why is XXE so hard to use?

A: XXE is simple to use once you have taken the time to learn how it works. In other words, unless you read the tutorial, you'll loose your time with XXE.

Q: If I want to make sure certain users, internal to our organisation, have access to XXE, can I send them CDs or point to a local download?

A: You are allowed to do that because this is internal to your organization. This also applies to add-ons.

Q: I'm supposed to be allowed to upgrade Professional Edition for free. How can I do that?

A: Please use this form: http://www.xmlmind.com/store/download.php , generally accessed through this page: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/upgrade.html.

Tip: If you want to be sent an email each time a new version of XMLmind XML Editor (Personal and Professional Editions) is released, please subscribe to the xmleditor-announce mailing list. This is done by using the form found in this page: http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/xmleditor-announce .

Q: I don't find the "Convert Document" menu in XXE Personal Edition. How can I convert my DocBook documents to HTML?

A: You cannot do that with free Personal Edition. Please consider purchasing Professional Edition.

Support of process commands has been restricted in Personal Edition. This implies that "Convert Document" menus are absent in Personal Edition.

Q: Do you have a trial version of XXE Professional Edition?

A: Please get an evaluation key using http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/evaluate.html and install it in a running Personal Edition.