Introduction to XML

XML is a term that stands for Extensible Markup Language . As you might guess from its name , XML is closely tied to HTML, and both look very similar. As a matter of fact, all XML code resides inside HTML code, so without HTML, XML would not be possible.

Although the version of Office that preceded Office 2003 (Office XP) offered some support for XML, that support was limited. Even XML support inside of Office 2003 is still not as complete as some would prefer, but Microsoft has made it clear that XML support will certainly be with Office for the foreseeable future.

Although XML is not strictly a part of FrontPage 2003 but rather part of all the Office 2003 products, introducing you to XML makes sense here in the FrontPage chapters because it was in the Web chapters that you learned about HTML.

HTML is a set of specific commands, known as command tags , as you learned in the previous chapter, whereas XML is a set of command tags that each user can create and work with.

Strictly speaking, XML commands are not called "command tags," but for now that's the best way of viewing them. They're always enclosed in angled brackets, such as <PartNo> , just as HTML tags are.