Doc-O-Matic

A software source code documentation and Help authoring tool. It takes source code and comments, adds conceptual topics and external input and produces documentation from it.
Doc-O-Matic is a software source code documentation and Help authoring tool. It takes source code and comments, adds conceptual topics and external input and produces documentation from it. With its single-source approach it generates many different kinds of output from a single documentation base. Doc-O-Matic produces HTML-based Help files from HTML Help, Help 2, Help 3 to Web Help and Windows Help. It also creates printable documentation in PDF format as well as XML output ideal for post-processing.

Doc-O-Matic creates fully cross-linked documentation systems including Source Code Documentation (especially API documentation), Application Documentation and User Manuals in PDF, HTML, HTML Help, Windows Help and RTF. It parses C/C++ and Delphi/Pascal source code and can extract documentation from source files in any programming language that uses comments including Assembler, VB, Java, PHP, SQL, Perl, Ada, Fortran, COBOL and LISP. It is available in the following Editions:

• Doc - O - Matic Professional
• Doc - O - Matic SRC
• Doc - O - Matic Author
• Doc - O - Matic Express

Release version 7 is available with several improvements, fixes and new features such as support for the new Microsoft Help 3 help format, new locking feature in the Contents Manager, support for incremental search to the Project Manager and much more.

Doc-O-Matic - Features

Doc-O-Matic Professional (formerly Doc-O-Matic)

Doc-O-Matic Professional enables you to develop, manage and maintain both source code documentation and Help authoring projects. With its advanced management and QA features and its wide variety of output formats its suitable for any kind of project, no matter how big.

This version supports C/C++, C#, Delphi, VB.NET, IDL, Java, ASPX, JSP, JavaScript, Matlab and PHP. Source code documentation can be done in-source and off-source, both Unicode and ANSI source files are supported.

Doc-O-Matic Professional makes it possible to create Online Help and printable documents from a single source, it supports PDF, Web Help/browser based Help, HTML Help, Help 2, Windows Help and XML output. Documentation authoring and output design are completely separated, targeting different audiences with multiple configurations and setups has never been easier.

The quality assurance features of Doc-O-Matic Professional help you identify areas of possible improvements easily and quickly. Projects can be partitioned into modules, projects can be interlinked and the class hierarchies help you find your way through them.

Features include:

Supports C++, C#, VB.NET, Delphi, Java and IDL

• Generate Online Help, printable documents and portable documentation from the same source.
• Help your audience better understand source code by providing information like class hierarchies and navigational overviews automatically and effortlessly.
• Integrate the generated documentation into other systems like Microsoft MSDN and Borland Help, ensuring the same look-and-feel as the original.
• Manage big projects and project clusters with features like master projects, project databases and modules.
• Control the documentation quality using the QA Manager and on the command line.
• Give technical writers easy access to source code and its documentation by providing a tool they can work with.
• Use existing documentation with the highest possible amount of import flexibility.
• Leverage the power and know-how of the industry's leading commercial tool.

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Doc-O-Matic SRC

Doc-O-Matic SRC is the tool of choice for source code documentation projects and application help development. Doc-O-Matic SRC comes with native programming language support for C/C++, C#, Delphi, VB.NET, IDL, Java, ASPX, JSP, JavaScript, Matlab and PHP.

It generates Online Help in HTML/Web Help, HTML Help, Help 2 and Windows Help ready for integration in other Help systems such as Microsoft MSDN and the Borland IDE Help.

Doc-O-Matic SRC is the combined successor for the previously sold products Doc-O-Matic for C++, Doc-O-Matic for .NET, Doc-O-Matic for Delphi and Doc-O-Matic for Java. All these Editions have been merged into Doc-O-Matic SRC, adding great value as it brings support for previously unsupported programming languages. All previous editions can be upgraded to Doc-O-Matic SRC or Doc-O-Matic Professional.

Features include:

Supports C++, C++ .NET, Developer Studio projects and C++ Builder projects

• Generate Online Help for your components, libraries and applications.
• Integrate your Help into other Help systems effortlessly.
• Produce documentation that nicely integrates into popular Help systems such as MSDN or Borland Help by using the same output style.
• Document source code in a wide variety of programming languages.
• Create documentation in-source and off-source, just like you prefer.

Doc-O-Matic for Authoring

Doc-O-Matic for Authoring is the ideal Help Authoring Tool (HAT) for developing general Online Help, Application Help, manuals and documentation of any kind.

It is a single source HAT featuring Web Help/browser based HTML, HTML Help, Help 2, PDF, Windows Help and XML output. It comes with a rich feature set for authoring and management of projects of any size.

Project management features include a visual TOC designer that gives you full control over the exported topics, multiple configurations per project with different topic sets as well as a fully fletched integrated topic editor.

Authoring and text-reuse features include snippets, labels, text variables, automated snippet insertion, conditional text on character, section and topic levels and many more.

Features include:

Supports Delphi and Delphi projects

• Author online Help, user manuals and all sorts of documentation including web pages.
• Write all company documentation from read me files and flyers to large Help systems consisting of thousands of topics with the same tool.
• Generate fully cross linked documentation in fully customizable Web Help/browser based Help, HTML Help, MS Help 2, PDF print documentation and XML output, all from one source.
• Import existing information from HTML, text files and XML documents.
• Reuse text with features like snippets, text variables and labels.
• Completely separate the authoring process from the documentation look and feel design.
• Tackle projects of any size with a clear, professional and easy-to-use user interface that doesn't let you down.
• Work like you are used to with the integrated topic editor.

New Features in Version 6.5

This is a major update to release 6, an update to this version is strongly recommended. Older 6.x versions are no longer supported beginning with the release of v6.5. Upgrades are free for existing 6.x customers.

New

• Doc-O-Matic now supports CodeGear Delphi 2009 generic language syntax extensions.
• Adds the Delphi 2009 link database for automatic linking into the Delphi 2009 help system.

Changed

• Longer index prefixes are now preferred over short ones. This means that the longest prefix available that matches will be used for index prefix removal.

Fixed

• Fixes an issue with index categories in both HTML based output and PDF that causes non-ASCII characters not to be starting a category and instead being added to the last category.
• Fixes an issue causing topics that use copy topics which are not exported to turn up with blank pages.

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Features in version 6.1

Updates and New Features

• The Korean and Japanese dictionary have been updated. Thanks to Kim SungDong for the great help!
• Added and updated all dictionaries for new translations.
• Help 2 Filters: A new option page has been added at [Configuration]->Files & Format->Help 2->Registration->Filters where you can define filters that will be registered as part of the registration process (TFHxReg only).
• A new project template has been added to create CodeGear Delphi 2007 and RAD Studio 2007 look alike help.
• A new feature has been added to the HTML template system that allows for dynamic insertion of CSS and JavaScript code into the header of the template. This makes it easier to integrate Doc-O-Matic output with dynamic features like the dynamic index search.
• HTML Output: New HTML Option Print above header for the Collapse All/Expand All link. Switched on by default for new projects and off for existing projects.
• XML Output: Added a new View Documentation option like for the other output formats which lets you control whether or not the generated XML file is shown after the build is complete.
• The online help has been updated.
• Doc-O-Matic now comes with schemas for the XML format that it supports. The schemas are copyright Borland
• Corporation, they are installed in support\schemas.
• The Delphi 5-7 project database has now class hierarchy information which is necessary to determine event types.
• Doc-O-Matic now starts the Help 2 Document Explorer installed with Visual Studio 2005/2008 and CodeGear Studio 2007 in a way so that the welcome page is displayed.

Visual Studio 2008

• Doc-O-Matic now uses the new Visual Studio 2008 Help style as default. The Visual Studio 2008 template has been adjusted to match the new MSDN documentation style.
• Doc-O-Matic now creates output that looks like the Visual Studio 2008 MSDN (when using the Visual Studio 2008 template). Features have been added to support this output style (see below).
• Doc-O-Matic now auto-detects the Visual Studio 2008 locations for the Help 2 viewer and the Help 2 compiler.
• A new option has been added to print a Send Feedback link as part of the title link list. This can be controlled via configuration settings page [Configuration]->Files & Format->Layout->Page Header->Feedback. Existing projects remain unaffected by this change if no header link code was entered on that page (the default).

Doc-O-Matic Express Final Release

• This is the first official release build for Doc-O-Matic Express (the previous release was marked beta).
• Doc-O-Matic Express Online Help for the configuration utility as well as help for the command line tool, code documentation, FAQs and more.
• Doc-O-Matic Express update checking tool (Help->Check For Update).
• Automatically generates content in the new Visual Studio 2008 style.

Fixed

• The spell checker is now closed automatically when selecting another topic while spell checking.
• Fixed an issue with spell checking for topic properties that did not always stop checking cancelling the spell check.
• Fixed an issue with spell checking for topic properties that caused manual changes made to a value while the spell checker was checking the value to be undone as soon as the next field was checked for the process was stopped.
• Fixed an issue that caused individual spell checking settings not to be saved between sessions correctly.
• Fixed an issue with the inspector that prevented values from being focused under certain conditions.
• When pasting different images in the Editor, sometimes the view in the image dialog was not refreshed and showed the last image pasted instead of the current one.
• No warning was given when overwriting an existing image file while saving a newly pasted image. Doc-O-Matic now prevents saving of pasted images with names that exist on the image path.
• Fixed: An issue in the element editor that cause font changes not to be applied correctly when changing alternative fonts for HTML elements.
• Fixed: An issue with saving and restoring certain program settings to and from the registry which could lead to corrupt file names in the recent projects list and similar non-critical issues.
• Fixed: An issue for Asian language users that caused tables that were laid out manually (not using the Editor) not to be read-in correctly. This fix adds improves compatibility with previous versions of Doc-O-Matic which used a different table-layout mechanism. Tables written by the Doc-O-Matic 6 Editor where not affected by this issue.
• Editor: The find feature did not work in certain cases. C++ macro expansion: A bug has been fixed that could cause serious side effects if a macro that does not have arguments was used before a parenthesized term, like STDCALLTYPE (* fptr)() in which case the complete parenthesized term would be ignored by the parser.
• UI: Fixes an issue that caused the language list in the Switch Language Dialog to display garbage characters when running in certain locales.
• UI: Fixes an issue that caused the editor heading to sometimes display nothing for topics in certain locales.
• Parsing: C++ (void) implementation location parameter lists that differed from the declaration could cause the implementation location comment to be ignored.
• Text Processing: The XML compatible tag was not properly processed during output generation so the text of included files was not used.
• HTML Output: Topics containing the percent % character in their ID were producing filenames that are incompatible with HTML Help. WebHelp and Help 2 were working correctly. The filename generation has been adjusted not to produce filenames containing those characters. Percent % will be turned into underscore .
• Core: Fixed a bug in the syntax highlighting engine that could cause a number of problems: The code translation did not process method name conversions, it caused unbalanced tags in HTML output and tag duplication in the XML output.
• Fixed duplicate definitions in eventtypes.pas.

Features in Version 6

• Project Management: Master projects, ability to store TOC information in external files, more control over command line output and improved command line handling, just to name a few.
• Editor and Authoring: Snippets, labels with formatting and conditional text features, text variables with automated formatting, CTRL-quick access for inserting labels, variables and snippets and more.
• Unicode: Doc-O-Matic now works with Unicode internally and supports Unicode source and documentation files, Unicode identifiers as well as on-the-fly conversion of external HTML documentation using any installed code page. Doc-O-Matic is now independent of the current system default locale and can create output in any language without change of locale setup.
• Source Code: Added PHP support, improved syntax printing with colourized syntax highlighting and much improved multi-language output. Doc-O-Matic now comes with a new Code Translation tool that helps maintaining the syntax translation matrix.
• Tools: Doc-O-Matic now comes with tools to manage the Code Translation matrix, HxBrowse for browsing the Help 2 namespace registry and tfhxreg for registering Help 2 files, namespaces and plug-ins.
• Localization: Localizing Doc-O-Matic projects can now be handled from one central place, the localization dictionary. All strings in the project that possibly contain translatable content are run through the dictionary upon output generation. Also, Doc-O-Matic comes with new localized button artwork for HTML and there is a new tool that helps switching the current language easily.
• UI: New UI elements like the Ribbon bar help managing the project more quickly.

Feature Matrix

To view the Feature Matrix, please click here.

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Doc-O-Matic - System Requirements

Requirements

• Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, ME, NT 4.0 or 98
• 20 MB additional hard disk space
• 64 MB memory (128 MB recommended).

Direct support is provided for the following IDEs:

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
• Microsoft Visual Studio 4.0 - 6.0
• Microsoft Visual Studio 97
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
• Microsoft Visual C++ .NET
• Microsoft Visual C# .NET
• Borland C++ 5.0
• Borland C++
• Borland C++ Builder 3 - 6
• Borland Delphi1.0 - 7.0.