How to Plan a Screenshot-Based Software Documentation Set

A documentation set with screenshots is easy to start and hard to keep. Each image is a copy of the interface on one day, and the interface keeps changing. Planning before capturing decides whether the set survives its first redesign.

This post covers how to structure the set, set rules for screenshots, and produce them on a Mac with Temposhot.

List the questions readers need answered

Collect real questions before deciding on pages. Good sources are support tickets, sales calls, onboarding sessions, internal chat threads and search terms on your current docs.

Write each question in the reader's words:

• "How do I invite a teammate?"
• "Why is my export blank?"
• "What does the Sync status mean?"
• "Which plan includes audit logs?"

Group duplicates. The resulting list is the scope of the set. Anything not on it can wait.

Assign one page type to each question

Different questions need different page shapes. Mixing them makes pages long and hard to scan.

Page type	Answers	Screenshots
Task guide	"How do I do X"	One per step
Reference	"What does X mean"	One annotated overview per screen
Troubleshooting	"Why did X fail"	The error state and the fix
Concept	"How does X work"	Diagrams, few or no screenshots

Tag every question from the list with a type. Most product questions end up as task guides.

Define a screenshot policy

Decide once how screenshots look, and write it down. A consistent set looks maintained and is faster to update.

• Window size: one fixed size for all captures. Temposhot's Specific Window target in Action Capture keeps the same window for a whole run.
• Theme and language: light or dark, and one interface language.
• Data: sample accounts and placeholder names only.
• Crop: the window or panel, never the full desktop. Use Framing with Focus on action at Balanced or Close.
• Marks: one click marker or arrow per image, one accent color.
• Format: PNG for interface text, WebP if your site needs smaller files.

Also decide where screenshots are not needed: a single-field setting, a step whose label is in the text, a screen that changes every release.

Name and store images for replacement

Every image will be replaced at some point. Name files so you can find all images of one screen fast.

A pattern such as area-task-step.png, for example billing-change-plan-03.png, sorts by area and task. Keep one folder per guide, and store the Temposhot Document for each guide so you can re-export after edits.

Temposhot's image exports use page titles in file names. Set titles before export, or rename files in your docs repository afterward. The ZIP package adds document.json alongside rendered PNG pages, which helps if you script imports into a docs system.

Create task guides before broad tours

Task guides answer the most common questions and are the easiest to verify. Write them first.

1. Open Action Capture

   Press Command+3, select Start Action Capture, and choose Specific Window.

2. Perform the task

   Click through the task once. Each accepted click saves the window just before the click, with a draft title from Parse clicked elements.

3. Finish and edit

   Select Finish capture. In the editor, rewrite titles, frame pages and add marks.

4. Export pages

   Open More export formats and choose PNG or WebP pages for the docs site.

Product tours and overview pages come later, once the task guides show which screens matter most. The Action Capture guide and Documents export guide cover the details.

Connect the documentation set

Readers rarely land on the page they need. Link pages so they can move from a concept to the task and from an error to the fix.

• Each task guide links to its prerequisites and to the next likely task.
• Each troubleshooting page links to the task guide it fixes.
• Each reference page links to the tasks that use the screen.

A short index page per product area, listing tasks by goal, helps readers who browse instead of search.

Assign ownership and review triggers

Give every page an owner, usually the team that owns the feature. Record the product version the screenshots match.

Review triggers work better than calendar reminders alone:

• A release changes a screen shown in the set.
• A label or menu item is renamed.
• Support reports a step that no longer matches.
• A fixed interval passes, such as one quarter, with no other trigger.

The post on keeping screenshot documentation up to date covers the update routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many screenshots should a software documentation page have?

One per step in task guides, and as few as possible elsewhere. Each image is a future update, so add one only when it saves the reader effort.

Should documentation screenshots show the full screen?

Rarely. Crop to the window or panel. Full-screen images show unrelated apps and shrink the interface text.

What is visual documentation?

Documentation that uses screenshots, diagrams or video alongside text. See visual documentation in the glossary.

Turn your clicks into a clear step-by-step guide

Action Capture records each task guide in one pass with consistent window size and draft titles. Download Temposhot and start with the most asked question on your list.