Materials - editing outside of Revit?

[hworrell]

Is there a way to edit the materials libraries outside of the Revit program? I'm thinking of something like the text files that exist for hatch patterns that can be edited, or Keynote files that can be edited in notepad or Keynote Manager.

I'm looking to create our firm material library based on materials we have edited in our customized template file, and am hoping there is an easier way then the UI within Revit.

Thanks!
Heather