Screen Steps for tutorials

Recently a colleague recommended a new documentation tool to me, which he insisted would save time in creating small tutorials of software or documenting procedures. I was rather sceptical, because over the years I have seen a lot of screen capture programs, and I still prefer to use the PrintScreen button on the keyboard, MS Paint and Wordpad or MS Word for writing these documents. But when he told me that the tool included a straightforward authoring environment and multi-channel output to MS Word, PDF, HTML, blogs, etc. I was intrigued.

So I downloaded a copy of Screen Steps and tried it out. I'm still figuring out all the tricks (like how to size the graphics correctly), but my initial impression is very good. I've written a few small tutorials, including one in my klutzy German explaining how to use memoQ RTF table output to make source files such as InDesign INX available for translation or review by persons who do not use translation environment tools. I tested the blog output feature, which offers a number of options. My first attempt went utterly haywire and had to be deleted (choosing BBCode output was a mistake), but the second attempt with "neutral" HTML worked and can be seen more or less unmodified here. I'm going to leave it in all its ugliness for comparison as I learn better ways to structure the output to a blog. Still I don't think it's all that bad for an initial attempt. I liked the HTML output of the same content better.

I often want to create content for a variety of media, so I think this "poor man's single sourcing option" is a fine thing. The trial version is good for 30 days, and the "high-end" version of the tool costs only about USD 80. That's a lot of useful function at a bargain price.