2. Elements are given serial numbers

The XML differencing algorithm implemented in the Compare tool requires all the elements to have a globally unique ID. This GUID, which is called a serial number, is assigned by XMLmind XML Editor (XXE for short) to an element during its lifetime and will not change no matter how you'll modify the content of this element.

Menu item ToolsChangesActivate Change Detection merely instructs XXE to systematically assign a serial number to all the elements contained in the document being edited.

These serial numbers are all stored in a single <?xxe-serial-numbers> processing-instruction. This processing-instruction is added after the root element of the document. Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<section version="5.0" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
  <title>Pangrams</title>
  ...
</section>

<?xxe-serial-numbers guqrbopr john
guqrevs5 bart
(1z141z5 (1z141z6) (1z141z7 (3y283y9) (3y283ya)) (1z141z8) (3y283yb))?>

Notes: