Tools of the Trade: ScreenSteps
More and more clients these days are requesting content management systems (CMS) so that they can update and manage their websites on their own. Really, this is a blessing for both the client and the developer, since clients can make changes quickly and easily without having to send all their updates back to the company who built their site.
However, any time you introduce new technology into the mix, you will inevitably spend a lot of time training clients how to use it. This is where ScreenSteps, a Mac and Windows app, comes to the rescue.
Essentially, ScreenSteps allows you to create lessons for your clients by capturing and compiling screenshots of the task you’re trying to teach in the order that you capture them. You can then add descriptions and annotations to the images you’ve captured. Once you’ve documented your task, you can export the lesson in HTML or as a printable PDF for your client.
In the past, I had been using Camtasia Studio for client training, but I found that I ended up repeating my lessons for each client. Now, I can create a lesson with ScreenSteps and simply cut, copy, and paste steps as required without the hassle of redoing an entire lesson. ScreenSteps exports aren’t as flashy as a video screencast, but they’re certainly just as useful to the client and much easier to edit and update.
There are three versions of ScreenSteps — free, Standard ($39.95 USD), and Pro ($59.95 USD) — and buying one license allows you to run ScreenSteps on both a Mac and Windows PC as a single user.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the Mac version. The only two issues I’ve encountered with version 2.0.1 are:
If I open ScreenSteps, then close the window, I can no longer open the program from the Dock. The app’s menubar is activated, but the main window does not reappear. I have to quit ScreenSteps and restart it to get the main window back.
Secondly: Sometimes, when creating a lesson, if I type a step title or step instruction and press Backspace to correct a typo, the “Delete selected step?” popup appears. I can’t get this to happen consistently, but it will happen throughout an entire session when it does occur.
Within a couple hours of sending these issues into tech support, they responded, letting me know that both issues will likely be resolved in 2.0.2.
Let me know if you’ve used ScreenSteps and what you think of it. Or, let me know how you document software for your clients.
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