How to make a step-by-step guide with screenshots
With macOS alone, you take a screenshot for each step, drag it into a document such as TextEdit and write the steps around it. Record Step Guide Pro (Shotbolt Pro) in Shotbolt makes a step from every click, with a screenshot and a title, in a guide you can edit and export.
What macOS can do
The macOS screenshot tools and TextEdit are enough for a short guide:
- Open TextEdit and start a rich text document. Apple's TextEdit guide says rich text documents can hold photos.
- Do the first step of the task, then take a screenshot, for example with Shift-Command-4 and a drag over the part that matters.
- While the floating thumbnail is on screen, drag it into the document. The thumbnail appears when Show Floating Thumbnail is selected in the Options menu of Shift-Command-5.
- Type the step under the picture, then repeat for every step.
You can also add saved screenshots with Edit → Attach Files, or by dragging them from Finder. Every screenshot, number and title is up to you, and a missed step means going back and taking it again.
Steps in Shotbolt
Record Step Guide Pro (Shotbolt Pro) watches your clicks while you do the task once. Every download from this site starts with 7 days of Pro.
- Click the Shotbolt icon in the menu bar and choose Record Step Guide… Pro (Shotbolt Pro), or click Steps in All-In-One. It has no key by default; you can add one in Settings → Shortcuts, under Screen Recording.
- A small panel at the top of the screen shows the step count. Do the task as usual: every click captures a step, with a screenshot of the window you clicked in, where you clicked and the app.
- To add a note to the newest step, click the note button in the panel, type it and press Return. It becomes that step's description.
- Click pause in the panel when you need clicks that should not become steps, and click it again to go on. The cancel button discards the steps when you click it a second time.
- Click Finish. The guide opens in its own window, filling the screen without going full screen.
No extra permission is needed beyond the Screen & System Audio Recording permission that every capture uses. Clicks on the Shotbolt panel are skipped, and the panel never shows in a screenshot.
Edit the guide
- Words. Click the guide's title, its introduction, or a step's title or description, and type. Each step starts with a title read from what you clicked, on your Mac. Descriptions take bold (⌘B), italic (⌘I), links (⌘K) and lists.
- Order. The sidebar lists every step. Drag a step to move it, or press Delete to remove it. ⌘Z undoes changes to the steps.
- Screenshots. A step's ⋯ menu has Edit Screenshot…, Crop… and Merge with Next Step.
- Missed a step. Add Step Here Pro (Shotbolt Pro) in a step's menu records new steps right after it, Record More Steps Pro (Shotbolt Pro) under the list adds them at the end, and Retake Screenshot Pro (Shotbolt Pro) takes one step again with your next click.
- Badge and spotlight. Each screenshot gets a numbered badge where you clicked, and a spotlight that dims everything around the control you clicked. Pick the badge color in the inspector, or turn either off for every step.
Export and share
Click Export in the toolbar for a PDF, or hold it for the other formats:
- PDF… (⇧⌘E), with a live preview: A4 or US Letter, portrait or landscape, Continuous or One step per page, and small, medium or large screenshots. Print… (⌘P) uses the same layout.
- Single Image… puts every step in one picture, as a PNG or a one-page PDF. Animated GIF… shows one step after another.
- HTML File… saves one file with the pictures inside, and Markdown Folder… a text file with a folder of pictures.
- Copy as Rich Text puts the guide on the clipboard to paste into a document or an email.
Help lists every export option.
From screenshots or a video
- Screenshots you took. Select two or more screenshots in History, right-click and choose Make Step Guide Pro (Shotbolt Pro). You get one step per screenshot, oldest first. You can also drag pictures from History or Finder onto a guide's step list.
- A screen recording. Right-click a recording in History and choose Make Step Guide Pro (Shotbolt Pro), or click Step Guide in the video editor. Every click in the parts you kept becomes a step, with the frame from just before the click. If the recording has a transcript, what you said before a click becomes that step's description.
Limits
- Clicks only. A step starts with a left click. Typing, scrolling and keyboard shortcuts make no steps of their own; add a note or write them into the description.
- Quick clicks. Clicks less than 0.4 seconds after the last step do not make a new step.
- What a step shows. A click in a window captures that window. A click on a menu, the Dock or the menu bar captures the whole display. To always capture the whole display, set Each step shows under Step guides in Settings → Recording.
- Screenshots without a click. A step made from a screenshot has no click, so it gets no spotlight and its badge sits in the top-left corner.
- Up to 100 at once. Make Step Guide takes at most 100 screenshots in one go.
- Recordings need click data. If a recording has no click data, the menu item says so and stays unavailable.
Questions
What about passwords and email addresses in the screenshots?
Redact Pro (Shotbolt Pro) in the toolbar covers email addresses, phone numbers, keys and other sensitive text in every step at once. New guides do it when you finish, unless you turn off Redact sensitive data in new guides in Settings → Recording. With Pro, exporting asks first when a guide still shows something sensitive. The original screenshots stay inside the guide, so share an export, not the guide itself.
What happens to my guides after the trial?
They stay. Guides are listed in History with a Guide badge and never expire. In Free, a guide you already have keeps opening and exporting; recording new steps and making new guides need Pro.