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How to Create a Step-by-Step Guide With Screenshots

Create clear step-by-step guides with screenshots: capture, annotate, redact, structure and share, with or without special tools.

By Robby Jay · Updated November 2026

Step-by-step guides with screenshots are the most useful kind of documentation for software tasks, because the reader can compare what they see with what you saw.

The manual way

1. Do the task slowly, pressing your screenshot shortcut after each click (Windows + Shift + S on Windows, Command + Shift + 4 on Mac).
2. Paste each screenshot into a document.
3. Draw a circle or arrow on what you clicked.
4. Write one short instruction above each image.
5. Crop and blur anything sensitive.
6. Export to PDF or share the document.

It works, but a 12-step guide easily takes 30–45 minutes.

The automatic way

1. Start a capture in Howdock (browser extension or desktop screen share).
2. Do the task normally.
3. Stop the capture. Each click is already a step with a screenshot and a marker.
4. Let AI rewrite the step titles, then fix anything it got wrong.
5. Redact sensitive fields, add tips and warnings, and share the link or PDF.

What makes a good guide

• A title that says the outcome: “How to add a printer in Windows 11”.
• One action per step, starting with a verb.
• Screenshots that show enough context to find the button, cropped to what matters.
• A marker on exactly what to click.
• A final step that confirms success (“You should now see…”).

Common mistakes

• Steps that combine several actions.
• Screenshots with personal data left visible.
• No date or owner, so nobody knows if it’s current.

Keep reading

How to Write an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) That People Actually Use · What Is Process Documentation? A Plain-English Guide · How to Document IT Processes: A Help Desk Playbook · Free templates