Most manuals start as a recording. You press record, do the job the way you always do it, and press stop. Sopycat watches what you click and type, then turns it into numbered steps with a picture for each one. The first time, the Record page suggests a small practice task and a title, so you can see how it works before you record real work.
Before you start
- Sopycat records the whole screen. Close or hide anything you don't want in the pictures, such as email, chat or other customers' records.
- Open the program you are about to use, and get it to the place where the task begins.
- If you want to talk while you work, check your microphone is plugged in. See Record your voice.
- Think about passwords. Anything you type is written into the manual. See What if I type a password? below.
Start a recording
Home › Record a task
You can also press Record a task on Home or at the top of the Manuals page, or press Ctrl+K and choose Record a task.
- Click the purple Record a task button on Home (it is on the Manuals page too, and Ctrl+Shift+R works from anywhere).
- Under What are you about to do?, type a short title, for example "Issue a refund in QuickBooks". This is optional. If you leave it empty, the manual starts as "New recording" and Sopycat names it for you when it writes the steps.
- If you have more than one screen, choose one under Which screen will you use? Your main screen is marked.
- Tick Record my voice too if you want to talk through the task.
- Click Start recording.
- Sopycat's window gets out of the way and a small black bar appears at the top of the screen. A 3, 2, 1 countdown plays first. Click the number if you want to start straight away.
- Do the task.
- Click Stop on the bar, or press Ctrl+F9.
Clicks during the countdown are not recorded. You can turn the countdown off in Settings › Screen Recording › Count down 3, 2, 1 before the recording starts.
While you record
- Pause for a moment after each click. This gives Sopycat a clear picture of what happened. Rushing is the most common reason for a wrong or unclear picture.
- Otherwise, work normally. You don't need to explain anything or go slowly.
- Type the way you normally would. Typing becomes one step when you stop typing for about a second and a half. Private values are left out by themselves; see Private typing.
- Keys count too. Enter, Tab, Esc and shortcuts like Ctrl+S are noted.
Sopycat keeps a video of the screen and a note of every click (left, right and double), what you type, the keys above, and scrolling. For each click it asks Windows what you clicked, and reads the screen when a program doesn't say. That is how steps get names like "Click Save". See How steps get their names.
Private typing
Some things you type are never written down. Sopycat leaves them out the moment you type them, so they are in no file, step name or instruction:
- anything typed into a password box, or a box named for a password or PIN
- card numbers, social-security numbers, phone numbers and email addresses
- long numbers, 9 digits or more, such as account, member or record numbers
- anything typed into a box named for private details, such as Date of birth, Account number, Routing number, Member ID or Medical record number
The step names the box instead, for example "Enter the Card number". The pictures from that recording are then checked and the private details blurred, including the box you typed into, even when Blur personal details in the pictures automatically is off. Password boxes already show dots, so their pictures are left as they are.
Other typing, such as a customer's name or an amount, is written into the manual. Look through the steps and pictures before you share a manual. To stop Sopycat writing down anything you type, turn off Settings › Screen Recording › Write down what I type.
The recording bar
The black bar is never in the recording, and clicks on it are not recorded. It is only as wide as what it shows, and grows to fit the name of the last step. From left to right it has:
| Part of the bar | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dots on the left | Drag here to move the bar. |
| Dot and timer | Shows you are recording and for how long. During the countdown the dot is amber and the timer says "Starting in 3…". Click it to start straight away. |
| Microphone | Shows your voice is being recorded, if you turned that on. |
| Marks counter | How many spots you have marked, for example "1 mark". It appears once you mark one. |
| Live caption | The name the manual will give the last thing you did. Handy for spotting a wrong name early. If Windows can't say what you clicked, it just says "Click", and the step is named from the screen afterwards. |
| Mark this spot | Makes a step at this moment, even without a click. It flashes green. Shortcut Ctrl+F8. |
| Pause | Stops the clock and the recording until you press Resume: a phone call, a slow page, a password. Nothing you do while paused becomes a step, and the pause is not in the video. Shortcut Ctrl+F7. |
| Arrow | Moves the bar to the bottom of the screen, or back to the top. |
| Start over | Throws away what you have so far and starts again. |
| × | Throws the recording away. |
| Stop | Ends the recording and saves it. Shortcut Ctrl+F9. |
Mark a spot without clicking
Sometimes the important moment isn't a click, for example a screen you want people to look at. Press Ctrl+F8 or click Mark this spot on the bar. Sopycat makes a step there called "Note this step" with a picture of the screen. Rename it and add your own words afterwards.
Start over or throw it away
Both buttons ask twice, so you can't lose a recording with one stray click.
- Start over: click it once and it asks "Start over?". Click again within a few seconds to restart from nothing.
- Throw it away: click × once and it asks "Throw away?". Click again to delete the recording. If this was a new manual, its empty entry is removed from Manuals too.
Stop a recording
Click Stop on the bar or press Ctrl+F9. The stop key works from any program. The bar shows "Saving…" and Sopycat's window comes back.
Always finish with the Stop button or the stop key. If the bar is closed some other way, the recording ends without being saved and Sopycat says "Recording window closed".
What happens after you stop
The manual opens and shows Writing your manual with a progress bar. Sopycat finds the steps, names what you clicked, writes a sentence for each step and makes the pictures with a highlight box and a step number. This usually takes a minute or two. You can leave the page and keep working while it finishes. All of it happens on your PC, with no AI. See How the words get written.
When it's done, the manual gets a label with the name of the program you recorded in. If you are in another program, Windows shows a "Manual ready" notice. If you recorded your voice, Sopycat then makes a tutorial video and tells you when it is ready.
If something goes wrong, the manual shows Something went wrong with Try again and Delete, and it appears under Needs attention on Home and on the Manuals page. If you see "No steps were found in this recording", record again and pause a moment after each click.
Then the manual opens with a bar across the top: 12 steps recorded. Look each one over. The step you are on shows the fixes you are most likely to need right under its name: Rename, Split…, Merge with next, Change picture, Blur and Remove. Next and Back move through the steps, or click any step to go to it. Press Done when the manual reads right; the bar goes away and every fix stays in each step's ⋯ menu. Until then the manual is listed under Needs attention on Home as not looked over yet. For everything else you can change, see Edit a manual.
Add more steps to a manual you already have
Manuals › open a manual › More options (⋯) › Record more steps…
- Open the manual and choose More options (⋯) › Record more steps…. You can also use the Record more steps button at the end of the steps.
- Under Where should the new steps go?, choose a place, for example Before step 1 or after a particular step.
- Click Start recording more steps, do that part of the task and stop as usual.
To add steps at one exact place, open that step's ⋯ menu and choose Add a step after this or Add a step before this, then Record more steps here…. You can't record into a manual while it is still being written.
Change the stop and mark keys
Settings › Screen Recording
The stop key is Ctrl+F9 and the mark key is Ctrl+F8. To change them, click Stop recording or Mark this spot and press the keys, such as Ctrl+F9 or Alt+F10. Sopycat keeps them only if they would work: keys another program already uses, the other shortcut's keys, or a plain letter are refused with the reason, and Esc puts the saved keys back. If another program takes a key later, the Record page says so, and on the recording bar that key is struck through: press the button instead. The same section has Tell me when a manual is ready or due for review, or something is sent to me, which turns the Windows notices on or off. For every shortcut in the app, see Keyboard shortcuts.
Common questions
Can I pause a recording?
No. There is no pause button. If you need a break, stop the recording. When you are ready, add the rest with Record more steps. If you only need a few seconds, you can simply wait, but the screen keeps recording the whole time.
Can I record just one window or part of the screen?
No. Sopycat records whole screens only. If you have two screens, you choose which one. Hide anything private before you start, and blur anything that slips in afterwards. See Blur something private.
What if I type a password?
What you type in a password box is never written down. The step says "Enter the Password" instead. Card and social-security numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and long account numbers are left out the same way; see Private typing. Other typing is written into the manual. To stop Sopycat writing down anything you type, turn off Settings › Screen Recording › Write down what I type. The same section has Blur personal details in the pictures automatically. See Blur personal details automatically.
Can I record two tasks at once?
No. You can make one recording at a time.
The bar is covering something I need to click
Drag it by the dots on its left, or click the arrow to send it to the bottom of the screen. The bar never appears in the pictures.
Does it work on a Mac?
Not yet. A Mac version is planned; today Sopycat runs on Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
Still stuck? See Fixing problems.
Didn't find it? Search every page, or ask us.