# Adding a global attribute

A global attribute is an attribute that can be recognized anywhere in a document. Once declared, a global attribute can be referenced in one or more declarations using an attribute reference.

The following instructions were written for the Resource perspective, but they will also work in many other perspectives.

To add a global attribute, follow these steps:

1. Open your XML schema in the XML schema editor.
2. In the Outline view, select your schema. The entire schema and its contents should be displayed in the Graph view.
3. In the Graph view, right click in the Attributes section and click Add Global Attribute.
4. In the Properties view, type the attribute Name.
5. Click the More button next to the Type field to launch the Available Types dialog.
6. Click the Built-in simple type or User-defined simple type radio button, select the type you want in the type list, then click OK. If you want to create a local simple type, select the User-defined simple type radio button, and select **anonymous**.
7. Click the Documentation tab if you want to provide any information about this global attribute. The Documentation page is used for human readable material, such as a description, and the App Info page can be used to provide information for applications.

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