Is it possible to generate help files from the comments within the project opposed to compiling the project?  I'm using C# and have a project completed, but haven't compiled it into a dll or moved to production, I just want to know if it is possible to generate documentation only based on the XML document/comments within the web application itself?

You can certainly use the Document! X Visual Comment Editor that is integrated into Visual Studio to create documentation in source comments without compiling an assembly. To generate the complete documentation set you will need to have a compiled assembly.