Found a nice professional Screenshot Solution

This is my first English contribution on my German blog. And I want to make clear, I’m not getting any money for this, it’s just a review about a solution which helped me several times when explaining customers a tool or onboarding new hires. The tool is called Runthru from company SideKick.

Some of you know the scenario, you’re working in a training or onboarding department and need to explain the internal tools and processes. Usually you take screenshots and write your comments for that, or even highlight something in your screenshot.

I experienced this very often when I had to take screenshots for my blog posts to keep up to date, based on the speed in which Microsoft was implementing changes, this led to having to constantly update my screenshots. Usually this need to be done from scratch with a lot of work to create the described scenario again. Poor me. ☹

Sure, there are many screenshot tools out there and you may have a favorite. However, Runthru has an interesting totally different approach to doing this. It’s not about taking only one screenshot and then saving them. Runthru creates your own personalized repository for your screenshot project, like a training material. These repositories can also be based on a template which can include your company branding.

When you created a new repository, you can use a normal Snap tool that you have used in the past with other similar tools. Nevertheless, what I like with this approach is the Replacement Mode. Because you know designs, look, and feel can change. With this tool, there is no need to create new texts, arrows, etc. to address the changes of your new screenshot. It will just replace the old screenshot by creating a layer underneath. All your marks and customizations remain in place – that’s great!

In the tool, you can see, I made five screenshots. This represents my screenshot project where each shot can have a title, properties, and additional markups. In my example, I customized them a little with some texts and arrows. Of course, there are many more functions to design your screenshots and training repository, e.g. arrows, rectangles, circles, text highlights, signs, icons, borders, counters, steps, etc. Similar to your screenshot tool, you can get creative to put all the markups and texts into your screenshots, as you start creating your project.

When you’re done with your markups, you can export it into some picture formats. However, the real differentiator is the output into different learning paths, as I would call it. Since, “Only Selected” or “All Screenshots” and all their markups of this project can be exported together. The output can be a PowerPoint or Word file, but also an HTML. Even the integration into Learning videos or directly into Microsoft Teams is possible.

When you review the outputs, you really get a step by step guide. In example, the eLearning will be a video and if you used counters 1, 2, 3…, then they will fly in as step 1, step 2, etc. Similar with the other output formats. If you worked with style elements like I did in step 2 and 3 and you highlighted an area, this area will be shown in zoom mode as an own picture/sequence in your output file or video (see below screenshots with step 3 and highlighted area).

This makes clear, it’s not just about screenshots, it’s really about creating learning paths and training material.

For me it’s really useful when explaining customers where they should click first, second, third etc. In order to configure a tool. I did this several times, but it created double work since I had to update screenshots later on when I would have to update a new customer name and start from scratch for next customer etc. Thankfully that’s not needed anymore, I can create a customer focused explanatory click-through decks, brand it with company logos, as well as saving time when customizing the screenshots or explanations.

If you work in an area where you also have to create many screenshots or even be responsible for creating training materials based on screenshots, then you should give this tool a try. To be honest, I got used to another screenshot tool, hence, for doing just a single shot, Runthru might be too big. However, I really appreciated the functions, when updating screenshots or customizing them for specific customers, hence, creating multiple similar click trough decks. It saved me hours. Not to mention the nice output functions, which will play out when you need to onboard new hires or new customers. Sure, that sound all nice theoretically. And it’s even better to try out yourself. Here you go to Runthru.

Happy screenshotting!