2.5. How a document is displayed by epcEdit

Every XML/SGML document has a structure that is defined by the occurrence and nesting of elements and other markup information. epcEdit displays the content of a document by separating the markup from the document data and by showing the markup information as markup icons.

The beginning and end of each element in the document is shown by start tag and end tag icons that delimit the range of the element's content. Everything between the start tag and the end tag of an element belongs to the content of this element. The name of the element that is delimited by a pair of tags is shown inside the markup icons.

Elements may contain just data, other elements, or both. When an element contains another element, the start and end tags of the contained element are shown within the content of the enclosing element. This structure is reflected by the document tree. If an element is contained within another element, the child element will appear to the right and below of the parent element.

A special location in the document is marked by the insertion cursor. This is the location where characters that you type will appear inside your document or where new elements will be inserted. Normally, the insertion cursor is located somewhere inside an element that might be part of the content of another element. The path to the current location of the insertion cursor is displayed in the element path field at the bottom of the document window. When you move the insertion cursor (either with the mouse or by using the arrow keys), the element path will be updated accordingly.