The New Wolfram Documentation Format

A quick overview of the new documentation system and new stylesheet features of interest in document creation

André Kuzniarek

Document Technology Manager
Wolfram Research

In-product documentation in the help viewer

Help viewer notebook and docked cell

Guides vs. Function Pages vs. Tutorials

Simplified URIs:
paclet:guide/Calculus
paclet:ref/Integrate
paclet:ref/format/TIFF
paclet:tutorial/AtomicObjects

Search example: Integrate vs. matrix

Docs on demand: paclet manager in action with conference beta, eg. DSolve > Scope

Documentation on the web

http://reference.test.wolfram.com

Same design, layout, URIs as in-product

Search example slightly different online currently: Integrate (extra link) vs. matrix

Unique URL for every example (current encoding will change soon)

Creating new documentation

DocuTools package for authoring

Package for converting legacy help browser docs to new format/layout to come

Legacy support for help browser docs ships with M6:
Help > [Version 5 AddOns Help]

Stylesheets updates

New menu layout

New editing interface with CSS in mind

Cascading stylesheets (CSS)
		cascading style definitions
				cascading cell styles

Other interesting new features (my favorites):

ReturnCreatesNewCell->True,
DefaultNewCellStyle->"foo",
DefaultReturnCreatedCellStyle->"faa",
MenuPosition->1000,
MenuCommandKey->"1",
DockedCells->{any cell expression},
CellDingbat->Cell["Hi Mom", "Text", FontSize->14]

New features in action:

Format > Stylesheet > Utility > Outline
Format > Stylesheet > Wolfram > Demonstration