Create document from jdom
import java.io.IOException; import org.jdom.Comment; import org.jdom.Document; import org.jdom.Element; import org.jdom.output.Format; import org.jdom.output.XMLOutputter; public class MainClass { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { Document doc = new Document(new Element("r").setAttribute("attribute", "value").addContent( new Element("inner")).addContent(new Comment("comment text")) .addContent("some inline text").addContent(new Element("inner2"))); new XMLOutputter(Format.getPrettyFormat()).output(doc, System.out); } }