You can use content assist to help you finish a tag or line of
code in the Source view of the XML editor. You can also use content assist
to insert templates into your XML code.
The placement of the cursor in your source file provides the context
for the content assist to offer suggestions for completion.
You can
launch content assist in either of the following ways:
- From the Edit menu, click Content Assist,
or
- Press Ctrl+Space
In addition, you can set up an option that causes content assist to
pop up automatically when certain characters are typed. To set up this option,
click to open the Preferences window, then select .
In the Content assist group box, select the Automatically
make suggestions check box, and supply any additional characters
that should trigger content assist.
If your cursor is in a position
where content assist is available, a pop-up list of available choices is displayed
when you launch content assist. The list is based on the context and whether
a DTD or XML schema is associated with the XML file being edited. For example,
if you have an Address element that can contain any of the following children
elements: Name, Street, City, Zip Code, Country, and Province, and you place
your cursor after any of them and launch content assist, all of the child
elements will be listed in the content assist list.
The content assist
list displays all valid tags for the current cursor position, including templates.
If your grammar constraints are turned off, all available tags, not just valid
ones, are displayed.
As you type the first one or two letters of the
tag that you want, the list automatically refreshes with alphabetized choices
that match your input. Scroll down and select the tag that you want to use
by double-clicking on it.
Note: The list only refreshes as
described if you first type < before prompting for
content assist.
