Edit a manual

A new manual is a good first draft. Most people spend a few minutes checking the steps, adding a tip or two, and removing anything that wasn't needed. This page covers the words and the order of the steps. For the pictures, see Fix the pictures.

Open a manual

Manuals › click a manual

Click Manuals in the sidebar, then click any manual to open it. To find one quickly, type in Search titles and every step… at the top of the page, or press Ctrl+K. For more on finding and filing manuals, see Your library.

Saving is automatic

You never need to press save. Sopycat saves a moment after you stop typing. Moving, adding or removing a step saves straight away. The status near the top shows Saving…, then Saved. If it says Unsaved, the last change hasn't been saved yet.

Every time a manual changes, Sopycat also keeps a copy you can go back to. See Go back to an earlier version.

Change the title, summary and labels

These are at the top of the manual.

• Title: click the title and type. A good title says what the task is, for example "Issue a refund in QuickBooks".
• Summary: click When should someone use this? (optional) under the title and add a line. It shows under the title, including at the top of the PDF.
• Labels: click + add a label, type a word, and press Enter or type a comma. Labels help you group and find manuals. A recorded manual already has one label, the name of the program it was recorded in.
• Who keeps this up to date? lets you name an owner and set a date to check it again. See Name an owner and a review date.

The header also has Pin, which keeps the manual at the top of the Manuals page, plus Follow along, View as PDF (the manual as its PDF, in a window of its own) and Save as (a PDF, a Word document, a web page, a text file or the tutorial video).

Rename a step

1. Click the step's title, next to its number.
2. Type the new name. It saves by itself.

Keep titles short and start with what to do, like "Click Save" or "Choose the customer". To see how Sopycat names steps, see How steps get their names.

Write the instructions

Under each picture is an instructions box. Click in it and type. Use it for the detail a new person needs: what to check, what to do if something looks different. For the reason behind the step, see Say why a step matters.

The toolbar above the box has:

• Font and size
• Bold (Ctrl+B), italic (Ctrl+I) and underline (Ctrl+U)
• Text color
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Add a link (Ctrl+K), for a link to a web page or an email address (typing an email makes an email link). A file on a computer or a network drive cannot be a link: say in the words where it is.
• Clear formatting, to take the styling off selected text

If you recorded your voice, you can turn what you said into the instructions with Use these words. See Use your words as the instructions.

Say why a step matters

Manuals › open a manual › a step's ⋯ › Add why this step matters

1. Open the step's ⋯ menu and choose Add why this step matters. A Why line appears under the step's words.
2. Type the reason, for example "so the refund posts the same day". It is saved with the step.

The why is shown under the step in the manual, in Follow along, and in the PDF, Word document, web page and text file you save. To take it off, choose Remove the why from the step's ⋯ menu, or click the × at the end of the line.

Give a step choices (if this, go to…)

Manuals › open a manual › a step's ⋯ › Add choices (if this, go to…)

Some tasks go one of two ways: "Is the order paid? If yes, go to step 5; if not, the task ends here." Make the step's title the question, then add choices:

1. Open the step's ⋯ menu and choose Add choices (if this, go to…). Two answers appear under the step: Yes, going to the next step, and No, ending the task.
2. Change the words of each answer, and choose the step it goes to, or The end of the task.
3. Add an answer adds another; the × removes one.

In Follow along the reader picks an answer instead of pressing Done. The PDF, Word document, web page and text file you save list the answers under the step, each with a link to the step it goes to.

If you remove a step that an answer goes to, the step says so; choose where the answer goes now. Until you do, Follow along goes on to the next step. To take the choices off, choose Remove the choices from the step's ⋯ menu.

The step menu

Manuals › open a manual › a step's ⋯ menu

Each step has a ⋯ menu with everything you can do to that step.

Tidy the steps after a recording

Manuals › open a manual › More options (⋯) › Tidy the steps…

A recording usually needs a little clean-up, and Sopycat can find most of it by rules, no AI involved: a double click shown as two steps, the same spot clicked again a few seconds later with the screen unchanged, a click with no name that changed nothing, typing into one box split in two by a pause, and a step with no picture and no words. Each suggestion shows the steps it concerns and says why; tick what should happen and press Apply the chosen. Merges and removals are the same as from a step's menu. To take the whole tidy back, press Undo on the message that appears, Undo tidy on the bar after a recording, or More options (⋯) › Undo the tidy: every merged and removed step comes back as it was, with its picture and number. Undo stays on offer until you change something else; after that, Earlier versions still has the manual from before. The bar that appears after a recording offers the same under Tidy.

Put the steps in order

Each step has a grip (⋮⋮) to the left of its number.

1. Press on the grip and drag the step to where it belongs. A line shows where it will land, and a small label says what will happen, for example "Step 2 becomes step 4" or "Step 2 stays where it is".
2. To move it a long way, drag near the top or bottom of the window and the page scrolls.
3. Let go.

Or open the step's ⋯ menu and choose Move up or Move down, and repeat until it is in the right place. From the keyboard, click the step and press Alt+↑ or Alt+↓.

Either way, the step numbers and the numbers on the pictures update by themselves, and a message with Undo lets you take the move back for about ten seconds.

Work on several steps at once

Click one step, then hold Shift and click another: every step between them is selected. Hold Ctrl and click to add one more step, or to let one go. A bar above the steps says how many are selected and offers Move up, Move down and Remove for all of them at once; Clear or Esc lets go of them. Clicking in a step's title or words works as always; a step is selected when you click the card itself.

Remove a step

1. Open the step's ⋯ menu and choose Remove step.
2. A message says "Step N removed" (or, with several steps selected, how many) with Undo. Click Undo within about 8 seconds if you change your mind.

Split one step into two

Use this when one step covers two things, for example when Sopycat missed a click.

1. Open the step's ⋯ menu and choose Split this step….
2. Click the picture in the strip where the second step starts. The strip and the slider under it cover this step only. To fine-tune, click Earlier or Later, or press the arrow keys (with Shift, a second at a time).
3. Check the two pictures at the top: what this step keeps, and the picture the new step starts with. Then click Split here.

The new step goes right after this one, with that picture and a box to drag onto what was clicked. It has no words yet, so give it a title. Splitting only works on steps that came from a recording. You can undo a split for about 10 seconds.

Merge two steps into one

1. Open the ⋯ menu of the first of the two steps.
2. Choose Merge with next step.

The two titles are joined, for example "Click Save, then close the window", and the first step's picture is kept. You can undo a merge for about 10 seconds. The last step has nothing after it, so it can't be merged.

Add a step

To add a step at a certain place, point between two steps: a + sits in the gap, and a line shows where the new step will go. Click it (the Tab key reaches it too) and choose what to add. The + above the first step puts the new step at the very start. The ⋯ menu of any step offers the same choices under Add a step after this and Add a step before this. To add one at the end, use Add a step below the last step. Either way, you can choose:

• Blank step: a step with no picture, for a note or a check.
• Picture from a file…: a step with a picture from your computer.
• Picture from the clipboard: a step with a picture you have copied.
• Take a screenshot now…: Sopycat steps aside and Windows' own snipping tool opens. Drag over the part of the screen you want, and the picture becomes the step. Press Esc there to change your mind.
• Record more steps here…: record the missing part of the task. See Add more steps to a manual you already have.
• Steps from a video file…: make steps from a screen video you already have, in mp4, webm, mov or mkv. Sopycat didn't see your clicks, so check the names and boxes afterwards.

Several pictures at once: copy the picture files in Explorer and press Ctrl+V in the manual, or drag them from Explorer onto a + between two steps (or onto Add a step at the end). Each picture becomes a step, in order. To copy a step, open its ⋯ menu and choose Duplicate this step; the copy goes right after it, with its own picture. Ctrl+Shift+N adds a blank step after the selected one.

Make a manual without recording

Manuals › New manual

Click New manual at the top of the Manuals page to start an empty manual, or on a folder's page to start one in that folder. Add steps with Add a step, from pictures, pasted screenshots or blank steps. You can still record steps into it later.

From a Steps Recorder file

Windows' Steps Recorder (deprecated by Microsoft, still on most PCs) saves an .mht file with one line and one picture per click. Add that file the way you add any document, by dropping it on the Documents page or with Add a document, and it becomes a manual: one step per line, titled in Sopycat's words ("Click Start"), the sentence Steps Recorder wrote as the step's words, and its picture. Adding the same file again opens the manual already here. An .mht that is not a Steps Recorder file is left alone, with a note saying so.

More options for the whole manual

Manuals › open a manual › More options (⋯)

If someone else is editing it

In a shared library, a banner tells you when someone else has the manual open. You can read it without editing, or choose Edit anyway. Editing at the same time can mean one person's changes need sorting out later, so it's best to agree who edits. See Share a library with your team.

Delete a manual

1. Choose More options (⋯) › Delete this manual.
2. Click Undo on the message straight away if that was a mistake.

Deleted manuals go to Recently deleted (in the sidebar, under More) for 30 days, so you can get one back later too.

Common questions

How do I undo a change?

For a removed, split or merged step, click Undo on the message that appears. For anything else, use More options (⋯) › Earlier versions and put back a copy from before the change.

Can I get Sopycat to write the steps again?

Yes, with More options (⋯) › Rewrite from the recording. This replaces your edits, so read Rewrite everything from the recording first.

Can I edit while the manual is still being written?

Wait until Writing your manual has finished. You can leave the page and come back, and a Windows notice tells you when it's ready.