Finding your way around · Sopycat Help

The sidebar is always on the left. From top to bottom it has:

The Sopycat logo. Click it to go to Home, the page Sopycat opens on. Beside it, the gear opens Settings.
Record a task, the purple button at the top. While you record it reads Recording… click to stop.
Home: record a task, search everything, pick up where you left off and see what needs attention. See Home below.
Manuals, with a count of your manuals. See Manuals and Documents below.
Documents, with a count of your documents: PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, decks, pictures and text files.
Records, who has read and done each manual. See Track who read and did a manual.
Onboarding, the Learn Sopycat tutorials and your team's roles and plans (Office plan). See Onboarding.
Saved files, the files you saved from your manuals and documents. See Where the files go.
More, which opens Your library (who uses the library and what is being edited), Backup & Restore, Getting started, Recently deleted (where deleted items wait for 30 days) and Help center.
Tools: Edit a PDF, Fill in a form, Sign a PDF, Redact a PDF, Edit a picture, Convert files, Combine into one PDF and Batch jobs. Each opens a page of its own.
Pinned, shown only when you have pinned something.
Recent, the five documents you opened or changed last, from anywhere in the library. It is open each time Sopycat starts.
Folders, your folder tree. Press + to make a new folder; until there is one, it says Press + to create a folder. Click a folder to open its page. Items in no folder are in Recent while you use them, and always on Manuals or Documents (grouped as Unfiled once some items are in folders). Type in Filter… and matching ones show under the folders too.
Labels, each label in use with a count. Click one to see everything that carries it.
At the bottom: a Filter… box, Add a document, Settings and the moon or sun button for dark and light mode.

Click a section's heading, or the arrow at its right, to fold Tools or Recent away and open it again. Sopycat remembers how you leave Tools.

Settings opens in its own window over the page you are on. Its pages are listed on the left (Plan & License, Library Location, Backup & Restore and the rest); the × in the corner, Esc or a click outside closes it and leaves you where you were.

A colored dot on a document shows its state: red means it failed, pulsing lavender means it is still being written or recorded, and amber means it is due for a review.

The Filter… box at the bottom of the sidebar lists every document whose title, summary, labels, owner or folder matches, wherever it is filed. It does not look inside steps or document text. For that, use the search box on Home, Manuals or Documents, or Ctrl+K.

Need more room? Click the chevron at the top of the sidebar (Hide the sidebar) to shrink it to a thin strip. Click it again to bring it back. Sopycat remembers which groups you left open or closed on this computer.

Home

Sidebar › Home, or the Sopycat logo

Sopycat opens on Home. It has:

Record a task: the three steps, Press Record, Do the task and Press Stop, with the button to start. See Record a task.
A search box, Search everything, including words inside files…. Type and press Enter, and the command palette opens with your words, so the search covers titles, labels, folders, every step and the words inside PDFs. See Find anything by typing.
Pick up where you left off: the last thing you opened on this computer and a few before it.
Needs attention, shown only when something needs it: a manual that failed or is still being worked on, a manual you have been asked to confirm you read, a manual due for review, and a manual whose steps no longer match the screen.
Four starting points: New manual, Add a document, Convert files and Records.

Manuals and Documents

Click Manuals in the sidebar to see only your manuals, or Documents to see only your documents (PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, decks, pictures and text files). Sopycat opens on Home, and the Sopycat logo takes you back there.

Along the top of Manuals are New manual (an empty manual you fill yourself, no recording needed) and Record a task. Documents has Add a document, and a File type row when it holds more than one kind of file. Both pages have the search box, the sort menu and the Grid / List switch; Documents also has Group by.

Below them the cards are grouped:

Needs attention: items still being written, ones that failed, ones due for a review, and manuals whose steps no longer match the screen.
Pinned items.
On Manuals, one group per folder. On Documents, one group per file type, or one per folder when Group by is set to By Folder. See Documents by file type.

Folders and labels are on Home, under your recent manuals; All folders opens the Folders page. Click a folder to open its page. It has New folder, Add a document, New manual and Record a task, and shows the folders inside it as tiles.

Folders, labels, search, sorting and selecting several items are all covered in The library.

A document page

Click any card to open it. What you see depends on what it is:

A manual opens in the manual editor: the title, a short summary, labels, and the numbered steps with their pictures. The header has Follow along, View as PDF, Save as and a ⋯ menu with everything else. See Editing a manual.
A PDF opens in the PDF editor, with tabs across the top for reading, editing text, pictures, pages, marking up and forms. See Edit a PDF.
A Word or text file opens in a simple editor. See Word and text files.
A picture opens for viewing.

Every card, sidebar row and document has the same ⋯ menu for opening, moving, pinning, labeling, renaming and deleting. A document's card menu also has Show in folder and Copy file, and a document's page has Open in its app and Show in folder at the top. See Open a document in another program.

Find anything by typing

Press Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+P) anywhere to open the command palette. The search box on Home opens it too, with your words already typed. It says Find a document, an action or a setting…. Start typing and it shows:

Documents, found by title and by the words inside them. Each result says where it matched, such as "in a step" or "in the text". Press Enter to open it. For a manual, it jumps straight to the matching step.
Actions, such as Record a task, New folder, Recently deleted or Take the tour again.
Actions for the open screen, such as Follow along for the manual you are in.
Settings sections. Pick one and Settings opens at that section.

With nothing typed, it lists what you chose recently. Use ↑ and ↓ to move, Tab to jump to the next group, and Esc to close.

Inside a step's instructions, Ctrl+K adds a link instead. Click outside the text first if you want the palette.

See every keyboard shortcut

Press ? when you are not typing in a box, or choose Show keyboard shortcuts in the command palette. A list of every shortcut appears, grouped by where it works. Press Esc to close it. The same list is on Keyboard shortcuts.

Switch between light and dark

The moon or sun button at the bottom of the sidebar

Click the moon to switch to dark mode, or the sun to switch back to light. You can also press Ctrl+K and choose Toggle light and dark. The choice is remembered on this computer. Printing always uses light.

Make Sopycat larger, or easier to see

Settings › Size & Contrast

Interface size draws the whole app larger or smaller: words, buttons and pictures grow together and stay sharp. Choose 90% to 150% there, or press Ctrl+= for larger, Ctrl+- for smaller and Ctrl+0 for the usual size, anywhere in the app. The size is remembered and applies to the Follow along window too.

More contrast makes edges, lines and quieter words darker and the ring around what the keyboard is on thicker. Reduce motion stops menus and panels sliding or fading. Both follow Windows: motion stops when Animation effects are off (Windows Settings › Accessibility › Visual effects), and a Windows contrast theme brings the stronger edges. The switches here turn them on for Sopycat whatever Windows says.

With a Windows contrast theme on, Sopycat draws a plain edge around every button and box so each one can still be found.

Where settings are

Click Settings at the bottom of the sidebar. Changes save the moment you make them, and a green Saved flashes to confirm. There is no Save button. To jump to one section, type its name in the command palette, for example "Backup" or "Your name".

Sopycat is in English only. The spelling checker follows the languages set in Windows.

Looking for a particular button? Where is it? lists them all.