To experiment with an empty element, let's include a tag to reference an image of the book cover. How you interpret and use the data will determine how you will organize your data. View the Document Save the XML document with any filename and an .xml extension. Well-formed XML in IE 5. Different XML parsers will render an XML document differently, giving either a structure outline of the entire document or a long string of only element data.
Point is, a well-formed XML document by itself simply provides a way to structure data.
As long as no XML syntax rules are broken, the document is well-formed. Of course, as it stands by itself, it doesn't lend itself for presentation without some form of stylesheet that we'll go over in a later tutorial. Next time, we'll cover the details on writing a DTD to specify exactly how a valid XML document must be written. Bonnie is a technical writer who designs and develops Web sites and creates system documentation. Current Issue .