Features of TechWriter

Automatically Generated Documentation

• Document databases
• Document web services
• Document websites
• Document XML schemas

User-defined Documentation

• Create your own topic-based documentation
• Organize your topics into a hierarchical table of contents
• Edit your topics using the built-in WYSIWYG editor

Supported Output Formats

• PDF (Portable Document Format)
• Compiled Help / HTML Help 1.x File (CHM)
• Word/RTF (DOC)
• HTML Page (single-page HTML)
• Web Site (multi-page HTML)
• DocBook XML
• XPS (XML Paper Specification) Document

Advanced Filtering

• Filter the tables, views, functions and procedures that you want to include or exclude through an easy-to-use checkbox interface.
• Filter based on wildcard patterns that match the names of your database objects.

Annotations

• WYSIWYG annoWYSIWYG annotation editor for adding and revising descriptions, remarks and user-defined annotations.
• Rich content model that supports formatting of paragraphs, lists, tables, images, hyperlinks and more.
• Support for annotations embedded in databases, web services and XML schemas using XML comments, JavaDoc and XHTML markup.
• Import and export annotations to and from comma-delimited and XML files.
• Export database annotations to a SQL script that can be applied back to the database.
• Merge XML schema annotations back into an XSD. 

Customizations

• Custom language file allows the values for all output headings and text to be redefined.  Can be used to support other languages or produce highly customized output. 
• Customize the font styles and colors used in the output by creating your own custom output stylesheet.
• Control the level of detail included in the topic page for each database object by selecting what items to include on each page.
• Define your own user-defined items that can be included as topic page sections or listing table columns.
• Control the layout of the topic page, the order of columns in listing tables, and the width of each column.

Optional Command Line Interface

• Can be called from build tools (e. g. MSBuild, Ant, NAnt).
• Parameters allow you to specify the project file, output type and a refresh switch.

PDF Output Features

• Printable table of contents with page numbers and hyperlinks
• Bookmarks for navigation
• Printable index with page numbers and hyperlinks
• Page headers and footers

Compiled Help Output Features

• Table of contents for navigation
• Search tab for full-text searching
• Index tab containing generated index terms
• Page headers and footers

Web Site/HTML Page Output Features

• Template-driven output
• Configurable top-level page name
• Configurable table of contents

Word/RTF Output Features

• Table of contents
• Page headers and footers

 Suppport Databases

• Microsoft Access 2000, 2002/XP, 2003, 2007 and 2012
• SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2012, all editions
• DB2 10.1 and higher
• MySQL 5.0 and higher
• Oracle 9i, 10g and 11g
• PostgreSQL 9.0 and higher
• SAS 9.0, 9.1 or 9.2 (Local Data Provider only)

Database Objects Documented

• Tables, Views and Columns.
• Table row counts.
• Functions, Procedures and Parameters.
• Forms, Reports, Macros and Modules (Access only)
• Indices, Foreign Keys and Triggers.
• Column Data Types, Default Values and Required Indicator.

• Any SOAP-based web service that is defined by a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) file or can produce a WSDL.
• Any REST-based web service that is defined by a Web Application Description Language (WADL) file or can produce a WADL.
• WSDL and WADL files can be accessed as either a local file or through an HTTP or HTTPS web request.
• REST web services can also be documented without a WADL.

• Services, Methods, Parameters and Faults.
• Elements, Attributes and Types used to define the method parameters.
• Cross References.

• XML Schema Definition (XSD)
• XML DTD
• XML Instance (schema is automatically derived)
• JSON Instance (schema is automatically derived)

• Elements and Attributes
• Simple and Complex Types
• Content Models and Compositors
• Facets, Restrictions and Enumerations
• Namespaces
• Cross References

Website Content Documented

• Web pages and images.
• Embedded media such as Flash.
• CSS Style Sheet and Javascript files.
• Cross References.