How do I create a notebook with the functionality of the Mathematica help system?

Question

I'd like to create and distribute a notebook that functions very much like the help window that appears in Mathematica to provide documentation about functions, tutorials, and etc., but my content would be an entirely different subject. In particular, I'd like the search functionality, hierarchical breadcrumb links across the top, styling ands sectioning, cross-referencing, right-click access from a different notebook, etc.

I get that a lot of this is probably hand-coded into each page, but there must be serious infrastructure in the notebook, and I'd like to mimic it. Does that help system exist as a single notebook somewhere, or is it a more distributed system?

Any suggestions or pointers would be welcome.

You could maybe start with putting a docked cell at the top. Hope this keyword will help. — Szabolcs, Mar 04 '15 at 18:21
Thanks. I'm familiar with "docked" cells, but going down that road means rolling my own. I'm hoping I can just use the help system infrastructure, perhaps by copying and changing the "content" of its notebook (if there is one), or invoking whatever package/code it might invoke. — ibeatty, Mar 04 '15 at 18:41
Wolfram Workbench can create documentation. However, it is a separate program that requires a separate license. — bbgodfrey, Mar 04 '15 at 19:11
related: Creating cross-version compatible documentation with Workbench — Kuba, Mar 04 '15 at 22:58

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '15 at 22:02

1

Thanks for the tip, @bbgodfrey. I dug into the online docs for Workbench, and see that it does in fact offer precisely the kind of functionality and information I was hoping for.

answered Mar 04 '15 at 22:02

ibeatty

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How do I create a notebook with the functionality of the Mathematica help system?

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