Automated XSD Schema Documentation Tool + WYSIWYG Authoring Environment
Document! X delivers the best of both worlds by seamlessly combining automatic documentation of XSD Schemas (or implied schemas direct from Xml Files) with a full WYSIWYG authoring environment. The generated Xml Schema documentation forms a comprehensive documentation set covering:
- Elements
- Complex Types, Simple Types and Groups;
- Attributes and Attribute Groups
- Constraints and Facets
Document! X can use any XSD Annotation Descriptions you have included in your XSD Schema and you can extend the source descriptions using the rich authoring environment provided by the Document! X Content File Editor.
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Sample Outputs
These sample outputs illustrate how much can be generated by Document! X right out of the box. All of the Document! X Templates are fully customizable and can be easily adapted or extended to meet your specific requirements.
Lightbox Schema Overview Page
Overview of the XSD Schema, listing the documented Elements, Complex Types, Simple Types, Groups, Attribute Groups and Attributes.
Lightbox Element Page
Page generated for an XSD Element, including a diagram, data tree and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox Complex Type Page
Page generated for an XSD Complex Type, including a type diagram, overview data tree and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox Simple Type Page
Page generated for an XSD Simple Type, including a type diagram, overview data tree and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox Attribute Group Page
Page generated for an Attribute Group, detailing the attributes contained within and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox Field / Option Page
>Page generated for an Attribute Group, detailing the type information and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox XSD Diagrams
Schema diagrams are automatically generated on XSD documentation pages.
Live Samples
Content Authoring Options
If you have already defined descriptions in your XSD Schema (in the form of Annotation Descriptions), Document! X can use them as summary text for the generated documentation and you can view the descriptions whilst you are editing to spot areas that need expansion and avoid duplication.
You can choose to author content in your XSD Schema Source, and/or using the rich authoring environment of the Document! X Content File editor. This flexibility allows you to include basic documentation in the source code and use the rich Document! X Content File editor to author extended content.
Lightbox Content File Editor
In combination with, or as an alternative to authoring content in XSD Schema Annotation Descriptions, create and maintain documentation content using the Document! X Content File Editor.
Lightbox Show Source Descriptions
Whilst you are authoring in the Content File Editor, any descriptions automatically obtained from the XSD Schema are shown (the gray boxes above the editable areas in the screenshot). This makes it quick and easy to spot content that needs extending or overriding.
Lightbox XSD Schema Diagrams
The generated documentation will automatically include an XSD Schema Diagram. These diagrams are invaluable in making sense of complex data structures.
Lightbox Data Trees
Document! X will automatically generate a data tree to visually illustrate the hierarchy of your XSD data types.
Lightbox Colorized XSD Source Code
Colorized XSD Source Code can be included in the generated documentation pages.
Authoring content in XSD Schema Annotations
Document! X can extract any documentation annotations created in the XSD source. Annotations are part of the XSD Schema standard so may already be contained in the XSD Schema you are documenting. Example:
<annotation>
<documentation xml:lang="en">
The documentation annotation type allows you to include basic
documentation within the XSD schema source.
</documentation>
</annotation>
You can use both Xsd Schema annotations and a Content File in Document! X. Creating content using a Content File allows you to edit your documentation in an editable preview of the generated pages and is the most productive way to create and edit new documentation content.
Schema Diagrams
In addition to documenting the Xml Schema objects themselves, Document! X will also generate relationship diagrams to illustrate the relationships between schema items (example below).

Example schema diagram generated by Document! X
Demonstration Movies
These short movies provide a great way to discover what can be achieved using Document! X.
Documenting an Xsd Schema
This movie will take you through the process of producing documentation from an XSD Schema file using Document! X. (10 mins)
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Publishing to a web site, ftp server or network location
This movie demonstrates the new Publishing functionality introduced in 2015.1. Publishing makes it easy to publish output generated by Document! X or HelpStudio to a web server or network location. A range of publishing methods are supported; you can publish to an Azure web site, a web site running on IIS, a web site that supports uploading via ftp, or directly to a local network path. (11 mins)
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Automatic optimization for Tablet and Mobile devices
This video demonstrates how the Responsive Output feature allows you to generate content that automatically adapts to the device type of the browser, providing an optimal experience for Mobile, Tablet and Desktop users from a single output. (5 mins)
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Using Build Profiles to create multiple outputs
This short video provides a demonstration of how you can configure a project to create multiple outputs from a single source, with each output driven by a separate options defined in the Build Profile. (3 minutes)
View this Movie More Movies
Single Source Build and Publish
Your documentation projects can be built to Browser Help, CHM (Html Help 1.x) or Microsoft Help Viewer (Visual Studio® 2010-2019). All of the specific requirements for the different output formats are handled for your automatically and you can build all outputs from a single project. Automatic publishing makes it quick and simple to deploy the generated output to your web site, ftp server or network location.
Lightbox Browser Help
Browser Help output is viewable directly in the web browser, so is the ideal format for publishing documentation on a web site or intranet site. The browser help output includes a Table of Contents, Index and Full Text Search.
Lightbox Tablet and Mobile Support
The automatically generated responsive support allows you to generate a single output that automatically adapts to the device profile; delivering an optimal browsing experience for Desktop, Tablet and Mobile from a single output. Tablet and Mobile devices benefit from buttonized links, a button based fly out Table of Contents and other automatic features that dramatically improve the end user experience.
Lightbox Html Help 1.x (CHM)
Html Help 1.x (CHM) is the Microsoft Windows compiled help file format. When building to CHM, the output is a single file that can be deployed to, and viewed on, any machine with Windows installed. The CHM viewer includes a Table of Contents, Index and Full Text Search.
Lightbox Publish to network path, ftp, Azure and IIS
Your built documentation can be automatically published to a range of locations; a network path, ftp server, Azure web site or IIS (Internet Information Services) Server. Publishing recongizes which files have changed in the last build, so publishing is quick and minimizes network traffic.
Lightbox Community Features
The generated output can be automatically integrated with a range of Community Providers (Facebook, Disqus, Livefyre or SolidOpinion) allowing you to include rich community features in your help systems.
Customization
The template based configuration that Document! X is based on makes it easy to:
- Create new comment types for use in source code comments;
- Adapt existing templates to match your existing corporate style and color scheme;
- Customize Table of Contents definitions according to your requirements;
- Fine tune the standard phrases and terminology used by Document! X to match your standards.
Authoring examples
The easy to use Example code designer included in the Content Editors makes adding multi-language examples a breeze. In-line or linked examples can be created and example code is automatically colorized in the generated output.
Localization
Document! X supports several different languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Russian) for the phrases used in the generated output. All of the phrases and terminology in the generated output can be configured according to preference.
Document! X allows you to author content for multiple languages within a single project, showing you an embedded tip for the primary locale content when you are authoring in the Content File Editor for a secondary locale. If you use the Document! X and HelpStudio bundle you can export and import your localized content in XLIFF format; the industry standard for sending and receiving translation content from translation providers.
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