Creating and recording Step by step guides

Creating a Step by step guide

The Step by step guide feature in Document360 offers multiple ways to create interactive, instructional guides. To create:  

1. Method 1: From the Create button

2. Method 2: From the Categories & Articles pane

3. Method 3: Between two articles or categories

4. Method 4: From the Page category editor

5. Method 5: From an Empty index category

Accessing the Step by step guide

After selecting Step by step guide through any of the above methods, the Create Step by step guide dialogue will appear.

1. In the Title field, enter your desired guide name with a maximum of 300 characters. Special characters and reserved words are not allowed.

2. Choose a desired category in the Category dropdown.

3. Click Create.

4. Click Install when prompted to install the Document360 Step by step guide extension.

NOTE

This extension is exclusively supported in the Chrome browser.

This will redirect you to the Chrome web store or the appropriate browser store page.

5. Click Add extension in the Chrome web store page.

6. Once installed, return to the Knowledge base portal and click Start capturing.

7. Select the desired screen to record:

   1. Chrome tab: Records only the selected Chrome tab.

   2. Window: Records only the selected window.

Recording steps

5. Once selected, click Share.

   The Step by step guide recording panel will appear.

6. Choose the best recommended resolution [Options include 16:9 and 4:3].

7. Click Start capturing to begin recording.

   1. Click Discard to cancel and return to the previous screen.

   2. In the Blur selected section, click Add to hide specific areas of the screen when recording sensitive information.

   3. Turn on the Show recording controls on the screen toggle if needed.

NOTE

• If the Show recording controls on the screen toggle is turned on, a Document360 logo will appear in the bottom left corner of the recording screen. Clicking the logo will pause the recording. This logo will also be visible in screenshots.

• Mouse clicks and interactions will be recorded, with click indicators displayed for easier guide editing.

Once recording begins, navigate through the screens and perform the necessary actions. All on-screen interactions, including mouse clicks and typing, will be recorded. A recording status icon will appear to show that the recording is active.

14. Click Pause and Record to pause or resume the recording.

15. To stop recording, click Stop sharing in the floating panel or click Stop recording in the Step by step guide dialogue.

    After recording, the steps are automatically uploaded to the guide editor in the Knowledge base portal. Each step will display the recorded screens with content.

Tips for a clean recording

A little preparation before you hit Start capturing saves significant editing time afterwards.

• Close unnecessary tabs and notifications - Browser notifications, email pop-ups, and unrelated tabs can appear in the recording. Silence them before you start.

• Use a clean browser profile - Bookmarks bars, extensions, and saved form data can appear on screen. Consider recording in a clean Chrome profile or incognito window.

• Pre-blur sensitive areas - If your workflow involves credentials, customer data, or internal URLs, use the Blur selected section before recording rather than blurring frame-by-frame in the editor.

• Go slow and deliberate - Hover briefly over each element before clicking. This gives readers time to orient themselves and produces cleaner click indicators in the recorded steps.

• Stick to one task per guide - A guide covering "set up your account AND configure your first report" will be hard to navigate. Record separate guides for each distinct task and link them.

Troubleshooting recording issues

The Install prompt doesn't appear - The extension may already be installed. Check your Chrome extensions list at chrome://extensions and look for "Document360 AI Capture". If the extension is available but disabled, enable it and return to the portal.

The recording panel appears but no steps are uploaded after stopping - This usually means the browser tab lost connection to the portal mid-recording. Check your internet connection, then try recording a shorter sequence first to confirm the upload works. Avoid navigating away from the portal tab while recording.

The extension prompt appears but clicking Install does nothing - Your organisation's Chrome policies may be blocking extension installs. Contact your IT administrator to allow the extension ID from the Chrome Web Store.

Steps are uploaded but images are blank or low quality - This can happen if the recorded tab was minimised or partially obscured during capture. Always keep the recorded tab visible and in the foreground for the full duration of the recording.

The recording runs but mouse clicks are not showing as indicators - Confirm the Document360 extension is active on the tab being recorded. If you switched tabs during setup, the extension may not have attached to the new tab. Stop, refresh, and start again.

Next steps

Once your guide is recorded and uploaded, you can edit and enhance each step - adding blur, spotlight, text overlays, highlights, image replacements, zoom effects, and animated clicks. See Editing a step by step guide for the full editing reference.