Nobody has time to narrate a training video. Is there a faster way?
Short answer: Make a screenshot-based step-by-step guide instead of a video. Tools like Scribe, Tella/Loom and Trainual Capture all auto-generate these as you simply click through the task once, no narration or editing required, and staff can skim a written guide far faster than watching a video start to finish. The tradeoff: screenshots go stale fast if the process changes, so assign someone to actually refresh them.
You know a training video would help, but it's never getting made, because nobody on your team has time to record, narrate and edit it, and the backlog of videos you meant to make keeps growing.
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Video is the format most people think of first for training, and it's also the one most likely to never actually get made, because recording, narrating and editing even a short video takes real, uninterrupted time most small businesses don't have lying around. The good news: for step-by-step software tasks specifically, video usually isn't even the best format.
Why screenshots beat video for this specific job
A screenshot-based guide, where each step shows a captured click with a short caption, gets skimmed and referenced far faster than a video. Someone stuck on step 4 can jump straight to step 4 and see exactly what the screen should look like, instead of scrubbing through a video timeline looking for the right moment. For anything that's a sequence of clicks in software, this format is genuinely better, not just faster to make.
Tools that make this automatically
- Scribe: free Basic tier, Pro Personal $35/month per seat ($25 annual), Pro Team $17/month per seat with a 5-seat minimum ($13 annual). Records your clicks as you work and generates the screenshot guide with no manual editing.
- Tella or Loom: these are video-first tools rather than screenshot-step tools, useful if the task genuinely needs a spoken explanation (why a step matters, not just what to click), but they bring back some of the time cost a screenshot guide avoids.
- Trainual Capture: a free-to-install Chrome extension, per Trainual's own description, that captures your clicks and screenshots and drops the finished guide as a draft directly into a Trainual account. Requires an existing Trainual subscription, to the broader platform for writing up and assigning company process documentation that the extension feeds into, which is quote-only across Core, Pro, Premium and Enterprise with a $1,000 one-time setup fee on new accounts.
The real tradeoff: staleness
Screenshot guides go out of date the moment the software's interface changes, a button moves, a new field gets added. A video has the same problem but it's less visually obvious when it's wrong; a screenshot guide with the wrong button highlighted is immediately, visibly broken. Plan for this by assigning someone to re-capture a guide whenever the underlying tool updates its interface, not just when someone notices it's wrong.
A worked example: a dental office replacing a video backlog
A dental office had three training videos on a to-do list for over a year: how to check in a patient in their scheduling software, how to process an insurance claim, how to log a no-show. None of them got made, because each one needed someone to clear an hour, write a script, record it, and then re-record after the first attempt had an awkward pause or a mistake. Switching to a screenshot-capture tool changed the actual task: the office manager simply did each process once at normal speed with the extension running, producing a finished guide in the time it took to do the task itself, five to ten minutes each, with zero editing. All three guides existed within a single afternoon, after sitting unmade for a year as "videos we should get around to."
The office manager then added one sentence of context to each guide's trickiest step, the specific insurance code lookup that confused every new hire, turning an auto-generated guide into something that actually answered the question new hires kept asking instead of just showing clicks. The same one-time capture works for training new hires on your CRM or portal.
A practical note on mixing formats
Nothing requires picking one format for everything. A reasonable default: screenshot guides for anything that's purely a sequence of clicks in software, and a short video or voice note specifically for the one or two steps in a process that genuinely need tone or judgment explained, a tricky customer conversation, a safety concern, a decision that depends on context a screenshot can't show. Keeping the screenshot guide as the main document and linking a short video clip at just the step that needs it avoids forcing every viewer to sit through a full video for the 90% of the process that a screenshot explains just as well. For the video side, building a training video library without a studio covers the tools.
A worked example: a real estate office replacing its last two unfinished videos
A small real estate office had two training videos sitting half-recorded on a shared drive for months, one on entering a new listing into their MLS-connected software, one on generating a client-ready comparison report. Neither ever got finished because the agent assigned to record them kept getting interrupted mid-recording and starting over. Switching to a screenshot capture tool removed the reason the videos kept failing: there was no take to get right, just a normal run-through of the task that got captured automatically regardless of whether the agent paused to answer a phone call mid-way. Both guides existed within the same week they were finally attempted, after sitting unfinished for most of a year under the video approach. Entering a listing correctly is its own problem, covered in stopping order entry and listing upload mistakes with clear steps.
A practical note on length, and when to split a guide in two
A capture tool will happily record a forty-click task as one continuous guide, but a guide that long gets skimmed less, not more, than two shorter guides covering a natural split in the process. If a task has a clear midpoint, say, everything up to submitting a form, then a separate follow-up step once approval comes back, split it into two guides at that boundary rather than one long scroll. Staff reference a short, specific guide far more readily than a long one they have to search through to find the three steps relevant to what they're stuck on right now.
Common mistakes with capture-based training
- Capturing a task while also troubleshooting something unrelated. If you click around while thinking out loud mid-recording, the guide captures every click including the ones that weren't part of the real process, confusing anyone who follows it exactly.
- Treating the auto-generated guide as finished without review. The tool captures what you clicked, not why. Add the missing context yourself, the reasoning behind a step, what to do if something goes wrong, before anyone else sees it.
- Never checking guides after a software update. An interface change can leave screenshots showing buttons or menus that no longer exist, and a stale screenshot is more confusing than no guide at all since it looks authoritative while being wrong.
How I'd approach this
I'd pick the two or three software tasks you currently avoid training on because "it'll take too long to explain," and capture those first with whichever free tier gets you started fastest. The time saved on just those two or three guides usually makes the case for the format on its own, before you need to decide on a paid plan or commit to a platform like Trainual for the long term. Trainual vs Scribe compares the two when you do need to choose.
Questions people ask
Is a screenshot guide really better than a video?
For step-by-step software tasks, usually yes. Staff can skim straight to the step they're stuck on instead of scrubbing through a video, and screenshot guides take less time to make since there's no recording, narrating or editing.
How do these tools generate the guide automatically?
You click through the task normally with the extension active, and it captures a screenshot at each click with an auto-generated caption describing the action, producing a finished draft guide without manual screenshotting or writing.
When does a video still make more sense?
When the explanation needs spoken context, like why a step matters or how to handle a judgment call, not just what to click. A video or screen recording carries tone and explanation a screenshot can't.
How do I stop these guides from going stale?
Assign a named owner to re-capture the guide whenever the underlying software's interface changes. Nobody checking this is the real reason screenshot guides quietly become wrong over time.
What does Trainual Capture cost?
It's free to install as a Chrome extension, but it requires an existing Trainual account, which is quote-only across four tiers plus a $1,000 one-time setup fee on new accounts.
Can I use Scribe without Trainual?
Yes, Scribe is a standalone tool with its own free tier and paid plans, with no requirement to use any other training platform alongside it.