What is XML?
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for coding documents in a format that are both machine- and human-readable. The World Wide Web Consortium released the first specification, XML 1.0, in 1998. XML comprises both instructional information as well as data or content. XML is useful across many industries but the publishing industry quickly adopted XML in its workflow due to the benefits of a multichannel publishing environment. XML is the successor to SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which was highly adopted among scholarly and educational publishers.
Here are my top 10 reasons to convert content into XML (in no particular order):
Provides a foundation for multichannel publishing for publishers, media companies, and content-centric organizations. The XML file format makes it possible and affordable to create content once and use it many times in print and digital formats.
XML separates content from structure, allows for quick reformatting across devices and products.
Structured format and inherent semantics in tagging improve content discoverability.
Content is independent of a single tool or format.
XML is flexible, transformable, and reusable.
Many content-specific XML standards that improve global interchange. For example, the ubiquitous JATS format allows for content interchange among publishers, platforms, and tool providers.
Supports the concept of content reuse with the ability to reuse portions of data for different products and different documentation sets.
XML support is woven into more applications and tools than ever before.
XML provides a version of record for your content minimizing editorial inconsistencies and version control issues.
XML is free. Unlike Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign, XML does not belong to one company. It is a language construct.
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