Content Completion in XML Schema

The intelligent Content Completion Assistant available in Oxygen XML Editor enables rapid, in-line identification and insertion of elements, attributes and attribute values valid in the editing context. All available proposals are listed in a pop-up menu displayed at the current cursor position.

The Content Completion Assistant is enabled by default. To disable it, open the Preferences dialog box and go to Editor > Content Completion. It is activated:

Automatically, after a configurable delay from the last key press of the < character. You can adjust the delay from the Content Completion preferences page.
On demand, by pressing Ctrl Space (Command Space on OS X) on a partial element or attribute name.
Note: If the Content Completion list contains only one valid proposal, when you press the Ctrl Space (Command Space on OS X) shortcut key, the proposal is automatically inserted.

Note: You can also start the Content Completion Assistant from Document > Content Completion > Start Content Completion.

When active, it displays a list of context-sensitive proposals valid at the current cursor position. Elements are selected in the list using the Up and Down cursor keys on your keyboard. For each selected item in the list, the Content Completion Assistant displays a documentation window. You can customize the size of the documentation window by dragging its top, right, and bottom borders.

To insert the selected content, do one of the following:

Press Enter or Tab key on your keyboard to insert both the start and end tags. The cursor is positioned inside the start tag, in a position suitable for inserting attributes.
Press Ctrl Enter (Meta Enter on OS X) on your keyboard. Oxygen XML Editor inserts both the start and end tags and positions the cursor between the tags, so you can start typing content.

Depending on the selected schema version, Oxygen XML Editor populates the proposals list with information taken either from XML Schema 1.0 or 1.1.

Oxygen XML Editor helps you to easily reference a component by providing the list of proposals (complex types, simple types, elements, attributes, groups, attribute groups, or notations) valid in the current context. The components are collected from the current file or from the imported/included schemas.

When editing xs:annotation/xs:appinfo elements of an XML Schema, the Content Completion Assistant proposes elements and attributes from a custom schema (by default ISO Schematron). This feature can be configured from the XSD Content Completion preferences page.