Document! X for Visual Studio Developers

Document! X fully supports documentation of .NET and Silverlight assemblies from compiled assemblies created in any .NET language, including VB.NET, C#, J# and C++/CLI. .NET Framework 1.0 - 4.5 and Silverlight are all supported.

Document! X integrates with Microsoft® Visual Studio® (2010 and 2012) to provide you with the tools you need to author and build documentation for your Visual Studio solutions.

View samples of .NET documentation generated by Document! X

View a demonstration movie of how Document! X integrates with Visual Studio

Download a free evaluation version

Documentation style and functionality

Templates are provided for the Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2012 documentation styles, so that users of the documentation you produce will be familiar with the structure, layout, style and functionality.

Generated documentation supports language filtering so that any language specific reference information such as syntax tables and examples will be filtered according to the chosen language(s). So if for example your users are programming in C#, they can choose to view shown the C# syntax definition and examples. The language filtering functionality implemented by Document! X is 'sticky', such that a language preference is preserved when navigating between pages.

F1 support is automatically generated, so your assembly documentation is only ever a keypress away for the developers using it.

Visual Comment Editor

The Document! X Visual Studio Visual Comment Editor provides a unique fully Visual Editor for your VB.NET, C# or C++/CLI source code comments. Integrated directly with the Visual Studio IDE, the Visual Comment Editor allows you to create and edit comments directly within an editable preview of the generated documentation.

Comments created with the Visual Editor are written back to your source code in standard XML format. If you prefer, you can of course create and edit source code comments manually.

Visual Studio Help integration

Document! X can automatically 'Plug-In' the generated Microsoft Help 2.x (Visual Studio 2002-2008) or Microsoft Help Viewer (2010 and 2012) file to the Visual Studio help collection on the local machine so that the generated Table of Contents and Index are merged into the Visual Studio help collection (this option is set on the 'Help Compiler Options' page of the Document! X Project Editor).

Document! X also ships with a command line tool to assist in registering Microsoft Help 2.x files on other machines, and generates .bat files for registration and un-registration automatically.

Content outside Source

You can choose to author content in the Document! X Content File editor. Content can be configured to extend (combine with) or override any existing Javadoc source comments according to your preference. This approach allows you to include basic documentation in the source code and use the rich Document! X Content File editor to supplement it (e.g. with examples, more detailed descriptions etc.).

The Document! X Content File editor can show you the .NET Xml source comments whilst you are editing, so that you can instantly see where the source documentation might require additional detail or replacement.

XML Comment file generation

If your assembly is written in a .NET language that does not generate an XML documentation file during compile, you will find that when using the assembly in Visual Studio Intellisense does not display a description. Document! X solves this problem by optionally generating an XML Comment file as part of the documentation build process - this enables descriptions in both Intellisense and the Object Browser.

Object model diagrams

Document! X automatically generates object relationship diagrams for your classes. Specific relationships can be ignored where necessary (e.g. a relationship back to a parent object). Collection objects automatically recognized and appropriately represented.

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.

Note that Document! X will automatically populate the description of members inherited from elsewhere in your assembly or the .NET Framework to further reduce the amount of documentation authoring effort.