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I have some XML files and schemas that I would like to document. Everything for this project is documented using NetBeans UML models, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and Microsoft Visio drawings. I'm a fan of self-documentation, but this isn't my choice - external documentation must be produced. How can I depict the XML files and schemas graphically using these tools?

+1  A: 

Although it depends somewhat on your dtd/schema, there's no reason you couldn't do it in UML. For example, has-a relationships identifying what tags can be nested within others, and attributes can easily be listed on each "class"(aka tag). If you'd prefer to make custom UML shapes for tags (based on classes), that's also an option.

See http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-umlschem/ for a decent example of this.

Jonathan Fingland
That's an interesting idea, actually. I'm going to go off and Google more on using UML to represent XML.
Thomas Owens
It looks like UML is accepted for this purpose, as proposed by your link as well as this one: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/08/22/uml.html
Thomas Owens
happy to help. Thanks for the accept.
Jonathan Fingland