How to turn screenshots into a step-by-step guide
The short answer
Capture each step, then either paste the screenshots into a document and write the instructions yourself, record the whole process with a tool such as Scribe or Tango that captures every click as you work, or let ScreenFeel's Make a guide lens write it from two to eight screenshots you already have: one numbered step per image, naming the real buttons and labels, ready to copy as Markdown.
By hand: screenshots and a document
The classic way still works and costs nothing: take a screenshot at each step with Win+Shift+S, paste them into Word, Google Docs, OneNote or your wiki, and write one instruction under each. It gives you full control over wording. It is also slow — most of the time goes on switching windows, cropping and describing buttons you can see perfectly well in the picture.
Record it as you go: Scribe and Tango
Scribe and Tango record a process while you do it. You start a capture in their browser extension, work through the task, and every click becomes a step with a screenshot and a generated instruction, which you can edit and share as a link, a PDF or an embed.
Both are built around the browser and their own cloud: guides are hosted on their service, and Scribe reserves desktop capture for its paid plans. Both also need you to plan ahead — the recording has to be running before you start the task.
From screenshots you already took: ScreenFeel's Make a guide
Often the guide is needed after the fact: you did the thing, took a few screenshots along the way, and now a colleague asks how. ScreenFeel's Make a guide lens writes it from the captures you have.
- Open the Library and tick two to eight captures, oldest first.
- Choose Make a guide. The price in credits is on the button before anything runs.
- Read the result: a heading naming the task, one sentence on what the guide achieves, one step per image opening with the instruction — click, type, choose — with the real controls, labels and values quoted exactly, and a result section on how to confirm it worked.
- Copy it, or download it as Markdown for Notion, Confluence, GitHub or any wiki.
It works with screenshots of any application, not only a browser, because the captures do. The images and the guide stay in your local library; the captures are sent once to write the guide, to a model that keeps nothing.
Screenshots that make a good guide
- Capture before you click. The useful picture shows the button you are about to press, not the screen after it.
- Keep the window the same size across steps, so each image looks like the one before.
- Frame the action. A region around the dialog beats a full screen with the important part in one corner.
- Number the steps in Studio. Its numbered-step markers and arrows make busy screens readable.
- Redact before you publish. Guides get shared widely; check each capture for names, emails and tokens first.
Questions people also ask
What is the fastest way to make a how-to guide with screenshots?
If you are about to do the task, a recorder such as Scribe or Tango captures each click as you go. If you have already done it and have the screenshots, ScreenFeel's Make a guide lens writes the steps from two to eight of them.
Is there a Scribe alternative that works with desktop apps for free?
Capturing desktop applications is a paid feature in Scribe. ScreenFeel captures any Windows application for free, and its Make a guide lens runs within the free monthly AI allowance.
Can I edit the guide after it is written?
Yes. The guide is plain Markdown: copy it into any editor or wiki and change whatever you like. In ScreenFeel you can also ask follow-up questions about the captures underneath the result.