Navigating the Document Content in Author Mode

Using the Keyboard

Oxygen XML Developer plugin allows you to quickly navigate through a document using the Tab key to move the cursor to the next XML node and Shift + Tab to go to the previous one. If you encounter a space preserved element when you navigate through a document and you do not press another key, pressing the Tab key will continue the navigation. However, if the cursor is positioned in a space preserved element and you press another key or you position the cursor inside such an element using the mouse, the Tab key can be used to arrange the text.

To navigate one word forward or backwards, use Ctrl + RightArrow (Command + RightArrow on OS X), and Ctrl + LeftArrow (Command + LeftArrow on OS X), respectively. Entities and hidden elements are skipped. To position the cursor at the beginning or at the end of the document you can use Ctrl + Home (Command + Home on OS X), and Ctrl + End (Command + End on OS X), respectively.

Navigating with the Outline View

Oxygen XML Developer plugin includes a very useful Outline view that displays a hierarchical tag overview of the currently edited XML Document.

You can use this view to quickly navigate through the current document by selecting nodes in the outline tree. It is synchronized with the editor area, so when you make a selection in the Outline view, the corresponding nodes are highlighted in the editor area.

Outline View Navigation in Author Mode

Using the Breadcrumb to Navigate

A breadcrumb on the top stripe indicates the path from document root to the current element. It can also be used as a helpful tool to navigate to specific elements throughout the structure of the document.

Breadcrumb in Author Mode

The last element listed in the breadcrumb is the element at the current cursor position. The last element is also highlighted by a thin light blue bar for easier identification. Clicking an element from the breadcrumb selects the entire element and navigates to it in the editor area.

Using the Linking Support

When working on multiple documents that reference each other (references, external entities, XInclude, DITA conref, etc), the linking support is useful for navigating between the documents. In the predefined customizations that are bundled with Oxygen XML Developer plugin, links are marked with an icon representing a chain link (). When hovering over the icon, the mouse pointer changes its shape to indicate that the link can be accessed and a tooltip presents the destination location. Click the link to open the referenced resource in the editor or system browser.