• The most recent version of this guide can be download from the Sandcastle Help File Builder project on CodePlex.

• For general background information, see the Wikipedia entry Microsoft Assistance Markup Language or, for schema information, see the MAML information at help-info.de

• If you need a tool to convert HTML files to MAML, the HTML to MAML Converter is included with Sandcastle as an extra along with this guide.

• To discuss Microsoft's Sandcastle, suggest new features, report bugs in it, and request help using it, visit the Sandcastle Help File Builder CodePlex project.

• For discussion and questions about help systems in general, visit the Visual Studio General Questions forum.

• The retired Microsoft Developer Documentation and Help System forum may also provide information on older help systems.

• The Sandcastle Blog provides news about Sandcastle and blog entries describing how its various features work.

• The .NET 2.0 Framework.

• The .NET 3.5 Framework.

• The .NET 4.0 Framework.

• The latest version of the Sandcastle tools (currently the April 2013 v2.7.3.0 release as of April 7, 2013). These are distributed along with the Sandcastle Help File Builder.

• The HTML Help Workshop for building HTML Help 1.x (.CHM) help files.

• The HTML Help 2.x compiler for building HTML Help 2.x (.HxS) help files. This must be downloaded and installed as part of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK or the Visual Studio 2008 SDK.

• If you are documenting .NET 1.1 applications and need the Help 2 compiler tools, you can download the Visual Studio 2003 Help Integration Toolkit.

• The Sandcastle Help File Builder contains the following custom build components:

  • The Code Block Component used to colorize code blocks and add optional line numbering and collapsible sections.

  • The Help Attributes Component used to insert additional HTML Help 2 attributes into reference topics.

  • The IntelliSense Component used to generate XML comments files for use as IntelliSense in Visual Studio.

  • The Show Missing Documentation Component used to add "missing documentation" notes to reference topics and to auto-document constructors.

  • A set of cached build data components that cache key information such as comment, reflection index information, and MSDN URLs across builds in order to speed them up.

Other Resources