> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abbyy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Advanced Designer overview

> Build ABBYY Vantage Document and Document Splitter skills on Windows with custom activities, scripting, and complex document layouts.

**ABBYY Vantage Advanced Designer** is a Windows desktop application for building Document skills and Document Splitter skills that use custom activities, scripting, or complex document layouts. Skills built in Advanced Designer are then published to ABBYY Vantage for production use.

<Note>
  Advanced Designer runs on Windows only (Windows 10 x64 or Windows Server 2016). See [System requirements](/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/system-reqs).
</Note>

## When to use Advanced Designer

Use Advanced Designer (rather than the cloud-based Skill Designer) when you need:

* **Document Splitter skills** — these can only be created in Advanced Designer.
* **Documents with significantly varying layouts** or fully unstructured documents.
* **Custom activities or scripting** that go beyond what Skill Designer offers.

For typical structured Document skills, the cloud [Skill Designer](/vantage/documentation/skill-designer/skill-designer) is faster to use and requires no local install.

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Install Advanced Designer" icon="download" href="/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/install-and-run">
    Download, install, and configure on Windows.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Getting started" icon="play" href="/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/getting-started">
    Tour the interface after first launch.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Document skills" icon="file-lines" href="/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/document-skills/document-skills">
    Extract field values from documents.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Document Splitter skills" icon="scissors" href="/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/document-splitter/splitter">
    Split a continuous flow of pages into separate documents.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Use cases" icon="lightbulb" href="/vantage/documentation/advanced-designer/use-cases/use-cases">
    See end-to-end scenarios for Advanced Designer.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>