[This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change.]
Welcome to the Sandcastle Tools help file. The Sandcastle tools are used to create help files
for managed class libraries containing both conceptual and API reference topics. API reference topics are created
by combining the XML comments that are embedded in your source code with the syntax and structure of the types
which is acquired by reflecting against the associated .NET Framework assembly. Conceptual topics are created by
converting XML documents that you author containing Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML).
Sandcastle was originally created by Microsoft back in 2006. The last official release from
Microsoft occurred in June 2010. Until October 2012, it was hosted at the Sandcastle project site on CodePlex.
In October 2012, Microsoft officially declared that they were ceasing support and development of Sandcastle. The
Sandcastle tools have been merged into the Sandcastle Help File Builder project and all future development and support for
them will be handled at its project site. The Sandcastle tools themselves remain separate from and have no
dependency on the help file builder. As such, they can be used in a standalone fashion with your own scripts and
build tools if that is your preference.
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See the Installation Instructions for information about the
required set of additional tools that need to be installed, where to get them, and how to make sure everything is
configured correctly. The guided installer also provides information on the necessary tools and walks you through
the installation steps.
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See Also
