Your manuals live in Sopycat's library. To give one to someone who doesn't use Sopycat, save a copy in a common format and send it the way you normally send files, such as email, a shared drive or a printout. Sopycat doesn't upload anything. Every copy is a file on your computer.
Which format should I use?
| Format | Best for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Printing, emailing, and a copy nobody will change | Save as › PDF document | |
| Archive PDF (PDF/A) | Records that must be kept for years, or an archive that asks for PDF/A | Save as › Archive PDF (PDF/A) |
| Word document | Adding it to a bigger document, or letting someone edit it in Word | Save as › Word document |
| Web page | Reading on any computer or phone, with no special program | Save as › Web page |
| Text file | Pasting into a wiki or another tool that takes plain text | Save as › Text file |
| Tutorial video (MP4) | People who would rather watch than read | Save as › Tutorial video, once the manual has one |
Save as is the button at the top of every manual. To see the PDF before you save anything, press View as PDF beside it.
If you gave a step a reason with Add why this step matters, the PDF, Word document, web page and text file show it under that step as a Why line. See Say why a step matters.
For people in your own office who use Sopycat, there is often no need to export at all. Point everyone at the same library. See Share a library with your team.
Where the files go: Saved files
Sidebar › Saved files
Everything you save with Save as goes into one folder inside your library, Saved files › Manuals, named after the manual. When it's done, Sopycat says so, with Open and Show in Windows.
- Saved files in the sidebar lists them, newest first, with the manual each one came from. Open shows a file in Sopycat: a PDF, a web page or a video as it is, a Word or text file as a preview.
- Copies of documents are listed there too, under Documents. Open a document and choose ⋯ › Save a copy; the copy goes into Saved files › Documents.
- Drag a file from the list into an email or a folder to send it.
- Saving the same manual again replaces its file, so there is one up-to-date copy of each. A manual you renamed gets the new name.
- Each file's ⋯ menu has Show in Windows, Open in Word (or the usual app), Save a copy… and Move to the Recycle Bin.
- To choose the folder yourself instead, use Save as › Save to another folder. That opens the usual Windows save window.
The Saved files folder is inside your library folder, so it is backed up and shared along with your library. See What is inside the library folder.
View as PDF
Manuals › open a manual › View as PDF
Opens the manual exactly as the PDF will look, in a window of its own. Nothing is saved. Page through it, zoom, print it with the printer button, or save it with the download button. Close the window when you're done.
Save as a PDF
Manuals › open a manual › Save as › PDF document
- Open the manual.
- Click Save as at the top, then PDF document.
- Choose a name and a folder, and save.
The PDF has the title, the summary, a line saying when it was updated, and every step numbered with its picture. It is Letter size with narrow margins. Other paper sizes such as A4 aren't offered.
The PDF is made for screen readers too, with a bookmark for each step. See Manuals for screen readers.
Save an archive PDF (PDF/A)
Manuals › open a manual › Save as › Archive PDF (PDF/A)
The same PDF, made to the archive rules for PDFs (PDF/A-2b): its fonts and colour profile are inside the file, so it looks the same in any reader years from now. It is saved beside the ordinary PDF as "title (archive).pdf". Sopycat checks the file against the archive rules itself; if an archive asks for a validator's report, check the file with the tool they name.
Save as a Word document
Manuals › open a manual › Save as › Word document
- Click Save as at the top, then Word document.
- Choose a name and a folder, and save.
The Word file has a numbered heading for each step, the pictures as wide as the page, and keeps your formatting and links, so you can go on editing it in Word. The pages are Letter size, like the PDF.
If you see "That file is open in Word. Close it there and save again.", you are saving over a file that is still open. Close it in Word, then save again.
Save as a web page
Manuals › open a manual › Save as › Web page
- Click Save as at the top, then Web page. The ⋯ menu on the manual's card has it too, as Share as a web page.
- Choose a name and a folder, and save.
You get one file that ends in .html, with the pictures inside it. It opens in any web browser, on a computer or a phone. Send it by email or put it on a shared drive.
This doesn't make a link on the internet. It is a file, and people need the file to open it.
In regulated-office mode, saving a web page is turned off. See Regulated-office mode.
Save as a text file
Manuals › open a manual › Save as › Text file
This saves the words as a Markdown file (.md), which many wikis and note tools accept, along with a folder of pictures next to it named after the file. Bold, colors and other formatting are not kept. Keep the file and its pictures folder together when you move them.
Save the tutorial video
A tutorial video is the screen recording played as one film, with your voice, a ring and number on each click, and a caption naming each step.
- If you recorded your voice, Sopycat makes the video by itself after it writes the manual.
- Otherwise, choose More options (⋯) › Make a tutorial video. This needs a manual that came from a recording.
The video appears in a Tutorial video panel on the manual, with a list of chapters. Click a chapter to jump to that step.
Every step card has a Watch button that plays its moment in the video, and the chapter that is playing has Go to step, which takes you back to the card.
Trim a step's clip
Each step owns a stretch of the recording, from a little before its click to a little before the next. To leave out a pause or a wrong turn, press Trim beside the step in the chapter list, or open the step's ⋯ › Tutorial video › Trim the video clip…. Move where the clip starts and ends, press Play the clip to watch what would stay, then Trim the clip. The click itself always stays in. Sopycat makes the video again by itself; Keep all of it and then Use the whole stretch put the clip back.
A step that should not be in the video at all (a wrong turn, or something private) stays in the manual with ⋯ › Tutorial video › Leave out of the video; the chapter list says so, and Put back in the video undoes it.
Keep a PDF up to date
For the people who read the shared folder without Sopycat: on the manual, More options (⋯) › Keep a PDF in Saved files up to date. From then on, a few seconds after every change to the words or pictures, the manual's PDF in Saved files is written again, so the folder always has the latest copy. Choose it again to stop.
The web page carries the video
When a manual has a tutorial video, Save as › Web page saves the video beside the page (the same name, ending .mp4, with its captions) and the page shows it at the top with a button for each chapter and Watch on every step. Keep the files together when you send them.
Say a step again
A slip of the tongue, a noisy room, or nothing said at that step: open the step's ⋯ › Tutorial video › Say this step again…, press Record, say it, press Stop, listen, then Use this clip. The clip becomes the step's narration in Follow along, and the tutorial video is made again with it laid over the step's stretch in place of what the recording caught. Use the recording's own words again puts the original back.
Captions
The steps are the video's captions: each one's number and title for as long as it is on screen. They are inside the MP4, where a player that reads captions shows them, and a saved copy also gets a .srt and a .vtt file beside it for YouTube, Teams and players that want a separate file. The save window opens in the folder you last saved that kind of file to.
- Click Save as at the top, then Tutorial video. The Save as MP4… button in the Tutorial video panel does the same.
- Choose a name and a folder, and save.
If you change the steps after the video was made, the panel says so. Click Make it again to update it. Hide folds the panel away and Show opens it again. To delete the video, choose More options (⋯) › Remove the tutorial video.
Manuals for screen readers
People who can't see the screen, or see it poorly, use a screen reader that reads the page aloud. Sopycat makes every saved manual ready for one:
- PDF: the file is tagged, so a screen reader knows the title, each step's heading ("Step 3: Open Orders"), the words and the pictures, and reads them in order. It says its language and shows its title in the reader's title bar, and the reader's side panel has a bookmark for each step.
- Pictures: each picture says what it shows, in the PDF, the Word document and the web page. Unless you write your own, that is the step's number and title, with the item the box highlights.
- Web page and Word document: each step is a real heading, so people can move from step to step.
Describe a picture in your own words
Manuals › open a manual › a step's ⋯ menu › Describe the picture…
Write what someone needs to know from the picture, for example "The Orders list, with the newest order at the top". Leave it empty to go back to the step's title. The words are not shown on the page; they are read aloud.
Sopycat can't promise a manual meets a particular accessibility law or standard. To check a saved PDF, open it in Sopycat and use Check accessibility, and listen to a page with a screen reader (Narrator is built into Windows).
Check before you share
- Private details: look through every picture and blur anything private. See Blur something private.
- The video: blurs on a step's picture are carried into that step's part of the tutorial video. Watch it through before you share it, and make it again after changing a blur. See Blurs and videos.
- Typed text: what you typed while recording may be in the step names and instructions. Passwords, card and social-security numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and long account numbers are left out by themselves (see Private typing), but read the steps through anyway.
- Old copies: a saved file doesn't update when you change the manual. Save it again after changes, and let people know which copy is current.
Common questions
How do I print a manual?
Press View as PDF, then the printer button in the window that opens. Or save it as a PDF and print that.
Can I get a link to share?
No. Sopycat doesn't put your manuals online. Save a web page or PDF and share the file, or put it somewhere your team can already reach, like a shared drive.
Can I export several manuals at once?
Each manual is saved one at a time from its own page.
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