1. Click the Application Menu button at the top left of the Ribbon;
2. Select the New page;
3. Choose Empty Project from the available Project Types;
4. On the New Project dialog, type a descriptive Project Name for the new project; 
5. You can optionally choose a specific directory in which to save your project by editing the Project Directory field; the project will by default be saved to a subdirectory of the default New / Save directory which is configurable in the Options editor (Paths page).
6. Click Ok;

The new empty documentation project will be created and opened for edit. You can now add the COM Components that you would like to document:

1. Click the Add COM Component Ribbon button on the Project Ribbon tab.
2. Use the displayed file dialog to select the COM Component(s) that you would like to document in this project.

The selected COM Component(s) will be added to the Project Explorer under the COM Components node. You can expand down through each COM Component node to tick / untick individual types in order to include / exclude them from the generated output; by default private types are excluded (unticked). Repeat the procedure above if you would like to add additional COM Components to the project.

A Content File will be created and added to the project under the Content Files node for each COM Component you add to the project. You can use this Content File to author additional content in the pages that Document! X will automatically generate.

If you would like to supplement the content of the pages automatically generated by Document! X and HelpStudio, you can do so using the Document! X and HelpStudio Content File Editor.

The Content File Editor allows you to review and author content for any item for which a reference documentation page is generated.

To open the Content File Editor:

1. Expand the Content Files node on the Project Explorer.
2. Locate the Content File for the item you wish to author content for.
3. Right click on the Content File and select Edit.
4. The Content File will be opened for edit. The tree on the left hand side of the editor shows you a hierarchical view of the item you are documenting.
5. Drill down and select an item from the tree and the related documentation pages will be shown in the right hand side of the editor.
6. Type directly in the editable portions of the page on the right hand side of the editor.
7. Select a specific content type from the toolbar / vertical menu to edit a specific type of content (e.g. Summary, See Also, Keywords).

Content File Editor Movies

Conceptual information is a key part of reference documentation, providing a high level introduction, tutorials or other conceptual information. You can easily create conceptual topics in Document! X and HelpStudio.

1. Click the New Topic button on the Project Ribbon tab, or use the Ctrl+T shortcut key.
2. The new Topic will be created in the currently selected Topic Category on the Project Explorer (or under the (Un-categorized) node if no category is selected) and will be opened for edit.
3. Type your conceptual content directly in the editable area of the Topic Editor.

You can find more information on Topic Editing in the Topic Editor topic.

Conceptual Authoring Movies

The settings that govern COM documentation generation are defined in the Build Profile editor. In a new project there is a single Build Profile but you can define many build profiles if you want to create multiple outputs with different settings.

To edit COM documentation settings:

1. Expand the Build Profiles node in the Project Explorer.
2. Select the Build Profile that you wish to edit.
3. Right click on the Build Profile and select Edit.
4. The Build Profile will be opened for edit.

In the Build Profile editor, you can find the COM Settings page under the Reference Documentation section.

An essential part of delivering a complete documentation set is ensuring that all the items have been documented. Document! X includes the Undocumented Items tool to quickly and easily identify undocumented items.

To identify undocumented items:

1. On the Tools Ribbon Tab, click the Undocumented Items button;
2. If your project contains more than one Build Profile, select the Profile for which you wish to find undocumented items;
3. Tick the Item Types (e.g. Class, Method, Schema, Column) that you wish to check for undocumented items;
4. Tick the Content Types that items must have to be considered documented (just Summary by default);
5. Tick the Content Sources that should be used when checking for content;
6. Click the Execute button. Any undocumented items will be listed in the results grid.

See the Undocumented Items topic for more information.

Find Undocumented Items Movies

Click the  Build Ribbon button on the Project ribbon tab to build your COM reference documentation.

By default the generated documentation will be registered on the local machine so that F1 from a COM development tool when using a documented component will automatically open the correct help page. Refer to the Deployment topic for more information on how to deploy your documentation to other machines.