diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index 5d66ef236..52d32f2b9 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -15,6 +15,16 @@
 import sys
 import os, subprocess
 import shlex
+from mock import Mock as MagicMock
+
+# mock out some of the modules to make docomentation easier
+class Mock(MagicMock):
+    @classmethod
+    def __getattr__(cls, name):
+        return Mock()
+
+MOCK_MODULES = ['pygtk', 'gtk', 'gobject', 'argparse', 'numpy', 'pandas']
+sys.modules.update((mod_name, Mock()) for mod_name in MOCK_MODULES)
 
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
 # add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the