D-Type PowerDoc Editor is a relatively simple Windows application created with one goal in mind: to help software developers build PowerDoc documents for their applications using a simple visual interface. As such, PowerDoc Editor allows developers to:

• learn about the structure and organization of PowerDoc documents;
• view, inspect and change the properties of existing PowerDoc objects;
• create most types of PowerDoc objects without any programming (coding);
• save PowerDoc documents in the native PowerDoc format or export them to C/C++, VB, VB Script, JScript/JavaScript, ASP or ASP.NET so their structure and content can be further manipulated through code;
• render pages to bitmap images in the PNG, JPEG or raw 24-bpp bitmap format.

The great thing about PowerDoc Editor is that PowerDoc objects do not have to be created from scratch. All frequently used objects are predefined and stored in the object template library. Once a predefined object is placed on the page, its properties can be further modified using the Object Builder tool. In this way, the object template library is a good starting point for constructing complex PowerDoc pages and documents.

Next, PowerDoc objects can be easily moved (on the page or from one page to another), duplicated and multiplied (as either real or virtual copies), transformed (using an affine transform matrix), masked (using the alpha-channel of another page), grouped (with other objects on the page), aligned (relative to other objects on the page) etc. In brief, PowerDoc Editor gives developers excellent control, flexibility and freedom for positioning, moving and manipulating objects on the page.

PowerDoc Editor also helps developers with text. Linked text fragments in rich text areas are typically the most complex objects to build yet they are frequently used in all types of documents. Fortunately, PowerDoc Editor makes it very easy to build and format rich text areas using a powerful text formatting tool. This tool allows developers to apply fonts, styles, layout, direction, shaping and may other text attributes to arbitrary selections of text. The formatting process does not differ much from using a standard word processor to edit and format text.

Although PowerDoc Editor makes it possible to construct PowerDoc objects without any programming, its Object Builder tool must be used properly. Object Builder has no knowledge of what a valid PowerDoc object is. The assumption is that the developer has enough knowledge and expertise to build structurally valid PowerDoc objects. This means that developers must build their PowerDoc objects in accordance with D-Type's Guidelines For Creating PowerDoc Objects.

PowerDoc Editor is currently available for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP only. However, PowerDoc documents created by this application are fully portable across different platforms (e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux).

To see PowerDoc Editor in action, take a look at our Rendering Great Looking Text With D-Type document.