Whenever you document your databases, you set up a project.

You can create a new project each time you want to document your databases. Alternatively, if you will always be documenting the same database objects, you can save the project. You can then open the project file at a later date or run it from the command line.

SQL Doc project files are saved with the extension .sqldoc

SQL Doc stores the following information as part of the project:

• SQL Server connection
  You specify the SQL Server connection details whenever you start a new SQL Doc project.
  

  To use an existing project file with different connection details, you can use the SQL Doc command line with the /project: and /server: options.
  
  For example, if you maintain production and test SQL Servers that host equivalent user databases, you can use a single SQL Doc project file to keep the same documentation settings for each server (such as the setting for the document author, and the specific objects that are documented). If you also use the /database: option, you can control exactly which databases are documented, while maintaining all other documentation settings specified in the project file.
  
  For more information about using the SQL Doc command line, see Using the command line.

• Object customization
  For more information about customizing sections of the documentation, see Setting up the documentation.
• Databases and objects to document
  For more information about adding and removing databases and objects from a project, see Setting up the documentation.
• Project and copyright information
  This is included on the project's first page, and in the header and footer of subsequent pages.
  For more information about editing these project-wide settings, see Setting up the documentation.

You specify the format for the generated documentation and the location that documentation is saved in when you generate the documentation.

Setting the SQL Doc startup option

To determine which project to open when SQL Doc starts, on the Tools menu, click Startup behavior, then select an option.

Working with projects created by older versions of SQL Doc (1.x, 2.x)

SQL Doc 4 can open SQL Doc project files that were created using SQL Doc versions 1.x and 2.x. However, when you save a project file from an older version of SQL Doc, it is upgraded to the SQL Doc 3+ file format.