What tools are available to create a help file in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

I need to write a help file for a WinForms app in Visual Studio 2010. Ideally, I'd like to use a tool that integrates with Visual Studio, rather than a totally separate tool.

In the past I've used HTML Help Workshop, but this is ancient, and I recall it was a little funky to use. I also know there was a tool built into the Visual Studio 2005 SDK, but I need something for 2010.

Answer 1

Here are your options...

If you want Microsoft's documentation generator with VS integration:

• Sandcastle Help File Builder for help file generation
• DocProject to integrate it into VS

Although, it appears that DocProject doesn't quite support VS2010 yet.

For the Non-MS solution there's GhostDoc, which does support VS 2010 integration and appears to be a better solution.

For options that don't integrate into Visual Studio:

• DoxyGen
• Docu
• NDoc3

Answer 2

it is an awkward target for tool vendors. In most shops, the help is authored by professional writers that don't have any use for Visual Studio in their day-to-day activities. Third party authoring tools like RoboHelp is their preferred weapon of choice.

The VS2005 SDK tool you probably saw was HelpStudio Lite, a product of Innovasys. There is no version available that integrates with VS2010 and judging from a forum post they have no intention of releasing one. Their Document X! product however does, sounds like what you ought to take a look at. The eval version is available for download from here.