ScreenSteps: Beautiful Tutorials in No Time At All

We live in a world where there are the tech-savvy and the not so tech-savvy. Sometimes us tech-savvy need to tell the others how to do different tasks, such as adding a Mail account or doing maintenance. Usually, this is a pain for the one who has to show the other. It’s hard to tell someone how to do something when they’re not right there with you. Well, there’s a really great tool for this that makes putting together guides extremely easy: ScreenSteps.

If you are a Windows user who is reading this blog, then I have some great news for you; ScreenSteps is not only a Mac app, but a Windows application as well! Everything I talk about should be available in the Windows version.

When you first open ScreenSteps, your library will be blank; you have to add a new lesson. To do this, click on the New toolbar item. You will now see an Untitled Lesson label at the top of the main pane of the window. You can now either add a new step, or capture a new step. If you just click on the New Step toolbar item, a new step will be added. There will be a little camera icon under where it says Add Title. When you click on this, you will be allowed to capture an image for that step. If you want to do that whole process in one step, just click on the Capture toolbar item, and you will be prompted to capture part of your screen. It will then create a new step with that image as the image. If you want to replace the current picture for a step, just click on the camera icon next to the current picture. The capture tool that ScreenSteps brings up is just the built-in capture tool to Mac OS X, so if you press Space, it will switch to window selection mode, and if you press Space again, it will switch back.

One of the best tools in ScreenSteps is Annotations. It allows you to add things like lines, ovals, and rectangles to your images. This can help even more with guides, by pointing out the important part of the image. To use these tools, just click on an image (in a step) and a new set of toolbar items will appear. Select, Crop, Line, Rectangle, Oval, and Sequence. The Select tool allows you to select annotations that have already been made. The Crop tool allows you to crop the image. The Line tool allows you to add lines with arrows. The Rectangle tool allows you to add rectangles. The Oval tool allows you to add ovals. The Sequence tool allows you to add numbered circles to make a sequence of where the reader should look. With the Line, Oval, Rectangle, and Sequence tools, if you click on the Inspect toolbar item, you can change things like opacity, arrows, color, and line size. The annotation tools are great for showing things even more in-depth.

The point of ScreenSteps is not for you to make a guide, and then just leave it; the point is to give the guide to others. ScreenSteps does a great job at this as well. When you have finished a guide or manual, you can export it in a few ways: PDF, HTML, ScreenSteps Live, Blog/Web, or Package. The first two are self explanatory; it just exports to that format. The third one, however, is much cooler than either of the first two. ScreenSteps Live is a service much like Skitch (in a way). You can upload a lesson, but no one can see it unless you allow them to. It is a great way to share documentation for free, without having to deal with a server or email. It is by far the fastest way (in ScreenSteps) to get documentation from one person to another. The Blog/Web allows you to post the documentation to a blog or Web site (big surprise!). Exporting to a Package exports to a ScreenSteps format that can be imported into someone else’s library. It is for when you need to give someone the raw file so they can edit the actual documentation. ScreenSteps has many great tools for exporting to any format you could want.

ScreenSteps retails for $39.95 for the standard version and $59.95 for the pro version. It is a great way to share guides, documentation, instructions, or anything with anybody! You can download a free trial from their site. I highly suggest you try it no matter who you are, because at some point in your life, you have to tell somebody how to do something; you don’t want to be caught off guard.

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