diff --git a/doc/rstPreproc.nim b/doc/rstPreproc.nim
index 92dfae4..e8efd29 100644
--- a/doc/rstPreproc.nim
+++ b/doc/rstPreproc.nim
@@ -17,11 +17,11 @@
 ## available as source files for automatic testing. This way, we can make sure
 ## that the code in the docs actually works.
 
-import parseopt2, streams, tables, strutils, os
+import parseopt2, streams, tables, strutils, os, options
 
 var
   infile = ""
-  path: string = nil
+  path = none(string)
 for kind, key, val in getopt():
   case kind
   of cmdArgument:
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ for kind, key, val in getopt():
   of cmdLongOption, cmdShortOption:
     case key
     of "out", "o":
-      if isNil(path): path = val
+      if path.isNone: path = some(val)
       else:
         echo "Duplicate output path!"
         quit 1
@@ -49,15 +49,15 @@ if infile == "":
   echo "Missing input file!"
   quit 1
 
-if isNil(path):
+if path.isNone:
   for i in countdown(infile.len - 1, 0):
     if infile[i] == '.':
-      if infile[i..^1] == ".rst": path = infile & ".rst"
-      else: path = infile[0..i] & "rst"
+      if infile[i..^1] == ".rst": path = some(infile & ".rst")
+      else: path = some(infile[0..i] & "rst")
       break
-  if isNil(path): path = infile & ".rst"
+  if path.isNone: path = some(infile & ".rst")
 
-var tmpOut = newFileStream(path, fmWrite)
+var tmpOut = newFileStream(path.get(), fmWrite)
 
 proc append(s: string) =
   tmpOut.writeLine(s)
@@ -118,17 +118,17 @@ var lineNum = 0
 for line in infile.lines():
   if line.len > 0 and line[0] == '%':
     var
-      srcPath: string = nil
+      srcPath = none(string)
       level = 0
     for i in 1..<line.len:
       if line[i] == '%':
-        srcPath = line[1 .. i - 1]
+        srcPath = some(line[1 .. i - 1])
         level = parseInt(line[i + 1 .. ^1])
         break
-    if isNil(srcPath):
+    if srcPath.isNone:
       echo "Second % missing in line " & $lineNum & "! content:\n"
       echo line
       quit 1
-    outputExamples("snippets" / srcPath, level)
+    outputExamples("snippets" / srcPath.get(), level)
   else:
     append(line)
diff --git a/doc/serialization.txt b/doc/serialization.txt
index 6c36916..6c1d4d8 100644
--- a/doc/serialization.txt
+++ b/doc/serialization.txt
@@ -72,28 +72,26 @@ supported.
 To support new scalar types, you must implement the ``constructObject()`` and
 ``representObject()`` procs on that type (see below).
 
-Collection Types
-----------------
+Container Types
+---------------
 
-NimYAML supports Nim's ``array``, ``set``, ``seq``, ``Table`` and
-``OrderedTable`` types out of the box. Unlike the native YAML types ``!!seq``
-and ``!!map``, Nim's collection types define the type of all their contained
-items (or keys and values). So YAML objects with heterogeneous types in them
-cannot be loaded to Nim collection types. For example, this sequence:
+NimYAML supports Nim's ``array``, ``set``, ``seq``, ``Table``, ``OrderedTable``
+and ``Option`` types out of the box. While YAML's standard types ``!!seq`` and
+``!!map`` allow arbitrarily typed content, in Nim the contained type must be
+known at compile time. Therefore, Nim cannot load ``!!seq`` and ``!!map``.
+
+However, it doesn't need to. For example, if you have a YAML file like this:
 
 .. code-block:: yaml
-
+    
     %YAML 1.2
-    --- !!seq
-    - !!int 1
-    - !!string foo
+    ---
+    - 1
+    - 2
 
-Cannot be loaded to a Nim ``seq``. For this reason, you cannot load YAML's
-native ``!!map`` and ``!!seq`` types directly into Nim types. However, you can
-use variant object types to process heterogeneous value lists, see below.
-
-Nim ``seq`` types may be ``nil``. This is handled by serializing them to an
-empty scalar with the tag ``!nim:nil:seq``.
+You can simply load it into a `seq[int]`. If your YAML file contains differently
+typed values in the same collection, you can use an implicit variant object, see
+below.
 
 Reference Types
 ---------------
@@ -182,7 +180,7 @@ list in order to load it:
   type
     ContainerKind = enum
       ckInt, ckString, ckNone
-    Container = object
+    Container {.implicit.} = object
       case kind: ContainerKind
       of ckInt:
         intVal: int
@@ -191,14 +189,12 @@ list in order to load it:
       of ckNone:
         discard
 
-  markAsImplicit(Container)
-
   var
     list: seq[Container]
     s = newFileStream("in.yaml")
   load(s, list)
 
-``markAsImplicit`` tells NimYAML that you want to use the type ``Container``
+``{.implicit.}`` tells NimYAML that you want to use the type ``Container``
 implicitly, i.e. its fields are not visible in YAML, and are set dependent on
 the value type that gets loaded into it. The type ``Container`` must fullfil the
 following requirements:
@@ -251,11 +247,8 @@ for example use it on a certain ``seq`` type:
 Customizing Field Handling
 ==========================
 
-NimYAML allows the user to specify special handling of certain object fields.
-This configuration will be applied at compile time when NimYAML generates the
-(de)serialization code for an object type. It is important that the
-configuration happens before any YAML operations (e.g. ``load`` or ``dump``) are
-executed on a variable of the object type.
+NimYAML allows the user to specify special handling of certain object fields via
+annotation pragmas.
 
 Transient Fields
 ----------------
@@ -271,27 +264,23 @@ Example:
 
   type MyObject: object
     storable: string
-    temporary: string
-
-  markAsTransient(MyObject, temporary)
+    temporary {.transient.}: string
 
 Default Values
 --------------
 
-When you load YAML that has been written by a human, you might want to allow the
-user to omit certain fields, which should then be filled with a default value.
-You can do that like this:
+When you load YAML, you might want to allow for the omission certain fields,
+which should then be filled with a default value. You can do that like this:
 
 .. code-block:: nim
 
   type MyObject: object
     required: string
-    optional: string
+    optional {.defaultVal: "default value".}: string
 
-  setDefaultValue(MyObject, optional, "default value")
-
-Whenever ``MyObject`` now is loaded and the input stream does not contain the
-field ``optional``, that field will be set to the value ``"default value"``.
+Whenever a value of type ``MyObject`` now is loaded and the input stream does
+not contain the field ``optional``, that field will be set to the value
+``"default value"``.
 
 Customize Serialization
 =======================
diff --git a/nimdoc.cfg b/nimdoc.cfg
index 0ab14c9..627294d 100644
--- a/nimdoc.cfg
+++ b/nimdoc.cfg
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ doc.file = """
       <li><a href="yaml.parser.html">yaml.parser</a></li>
       <li><a href="yaml.presenter.html">yaml.presenter</a></li>
       <li><a href="yaml.serialization.html">yaml.serialization</a></li>
+      <li><a href="yaml.annotations.html">yaml.annotations</a></li>
       <li><a href="yaml.stream.html">yaml.stream</a></li>
       <li><a href="yaml.taglib.html">yaml.taglib</a></li>
       <li><a href="yaml.tojson.html">yaml.tojson</a></li>
diff --git a/yaml/annotations.nim b/yaml/annotations.nim
index b43fdaa..646d27b 100644
--- a/yaml/annotations.nim
+++ b/yaml/annotations.nim
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 
 template defaultVal*(value : typed) {.pragma.}
   ## This annotation can be assigned to an object field. During deserialization,
-  ## if no value for this field is given, the `value` parameter of this
+  ## if no value for this field is given, the ``value`` parameter of this
   ## annotation is used as value.
   ##
   ## Example usage:
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ template defaultVal*(value : typed) {.pragma.}
   ##     c {.defaultVal: (1,2).}: tuple[x, y: int]
 
 template transient*() {.pragma.}
-  ## This annotation can be assigned to an object field. Any object field
+  ## This annotation can be put on an object field. Any object field
   ## carrying this annotation will not be serialized to YAML and cannot be given
   ## a value when deserializing. Giving a value for this field during
   ## deserialization is an error.
@@ -39,14 +39,17 @@ template transient*() {.pragma.}
   ##   markAsTransient(MyObject, c)
 
 template ignore*(keys : openarray[string]) {.pragma.}
-  ## This annotation can be assigned to an object type. All keys with the given
+  ## This annotation can be put on an object type. All keys with the given
   ## names in the input YAML mapping will be ignored when deserializing a value
   ## of this type. This can be used to ignore parts of the YAML structure.
   ##
+  ## You may use it with an empty list (``{.ignore: [].}``) to ignore *all*
+  ## unknown keys.
+  ##
   ## Example usage:
   ##
   ## .. code-block::
-  ##   type MyObject {.ignore("c").} = object
+  ##   type MyObject {.ignore: ["c"].} = object
   ##     a, b: string
 
 template implicit*() {.pragma.}