To edit a Workbench resource outside the Workbench:
Tip: If you work with external editors regularly, you may want to enable auto-refresh. This can be done by opening the General > Workspace preference page, and checking the Refresh using native hooks or polling or Refresh on access option. When at least one of them is enabled, any changes made by external editors will be automatically discovered by the Workbench. Depending on the platform this may not happen immediately for Refresh using native hooks or polling.
Opening files for editing
Associating editors with file types