Free while we’re in preview

Get StepShot

Screenshots plus a manifest become a Word file with the arrows already drawn.

The Mac button is for Apple Silicon. On an older Intel Mac, get this one instead.

One file, both ways. Double-click it for the window. Run the same file from a command prompt with arguments and it behaves as the command-line tool, because the engine is inside it. Nothing else to download and nothing to keep beside it.

Early preview. The window has been built and run, but not yet on a real Windows PC or Mac, so expect rough edges. The engine underneath it is fully tested.

One file — no installer
Runs on your machine, offline
Source code published below

Free while in preview. It isn’t signed yet, so Windows or macOS will ask you to confirm the first time you open it. At launch, StepShot is included in every plan along with the rest of the range.

You write the coordinates, it draws the arrows

A JSON manifest names each capture, its step number, its text, and where the callouts go in pixels of the source image. StepShot rasterises circles, rectangles and arrows onto copies with its own anti-aliasing code: circles auto-numbered within their step, arrowheads as real filled triangles at 4x4 supersampling, labels from a bitmap glyph table compiled into the binary. Your source PNGs are opened read-only and never altered.

Nothing is inferred. It doesn’t watch your clicks or guess where the button was.

Three files from one source of truth

The .docx is a genuine OOXML package assembled part by part, and every build re-opens the file it just wrote, parses each XML part and resolves every relationship before it will let you have it. Two builds from unchanged inputs are byte-identical, timestamps included, which is what makes the optional build ledger meaningful.

Know the subset though: there’s no styles.xml, so no navigation pane and no automatic table of contents. Step numbers are literal text.

The things that will bite you

Callout labels are ASCII only and folded to uppercase, so a label written “Toggle” is drawn TOGGLE. PNG input only, no JPEG. And there’s no blurring or redaction: if a capture shows a password, the published guide shows the password.

Reading on the job itself

How to turn a folder of screenshots into a written guide Put the images in a folder and the captions in a plain text file beside them, one stanza per image. Then re...

The rest of Screenshot to Documentation

A folder of screenshots and a guide somebody can follow. Write it up, check the captions, cover the private bits, mark up the steps.

SnapDocs

Simple Ready

A folder of screenshots plus a text file becomes one guide you can email.

DocSnap

Vertical Ready

Twenty ticket screenshot folders in, twenty step-by-step docs out, one command.

CaptureFlow

Pro Ready

Redact forty support screenshots identically, because the coordinates live in a file.

Advanced & technical details Command-line builds, source code, checksums and a recorded session — for developers and IT teams

A working command-line build of the document publisher: it validates a capture manifest down to the line and column, draws numbered callouts, rectangles and arrows onto copies of your screenshots with its own anti-aliased rasterisers and a compiled-in bitmap font, and writes a self-contained HTML guide, a Markdown file and a genuinely valid .docx assembled part by part. Every build re-opens its own .docx, parses each XML part and resolves every relationship before it will ship the file. Source images are never modified.

Naming status

Working name only — brand verdict **AVOID** (Very High). Collision: StepShot. Rename completely.

What it draws on

Existing paid software whose best ideas shaped this program: Snagit, Screenpresso Pro, FastStone Capture, ClipboardFusion Pro.

Command line

There is nothing extra to install. The program you download is the command-line tool as well: give it arguments instead of double-clicking it and it runs as one, with its output on your terminal. The standalone builds below are the same engine on its own, for machines where you would rather not ship a window at all.

stepshot 1.0.0 - screenshots plus a manifest, published as a real document
Techlosoft - Screenshot to Documentation (Team variant)

USAGE
  stepshot check  --manifest <file.json> [--strict] [--json]
  stepshot build  --manifest <file.json> --out-dir <dir> [--format html,docx,md]
                    [--name <base>] [--ledger <file.jsonl>] [--force] [--json]
  stepshot verify <file.docx> [--json]
  stepshot ledger --ledger <file.jsonl> [--json]
  stepshot help | -h | --help

COMMANDS
  check    Validate the manifest against the image folder and report every
           problem, with file:line:col into the manifest wherever it is known.
           Exits 1 if any error was found, 0 if only warnings were.
  build    Draw the callouts onto COPIES of the screenshots and write the
           document in each requested format, plus the annotated PNGs. Refuses
           to overwrite existing files unless --force is given. Every build can
           append a JSON-lines record of what it produced to a ledger.
  verify   Open an existing .docx, check that every required part is present,
           that every XML part parses, and that every relationship id used by
           word/document.xml resolves.
  ledger   List the build records written so far.

FLAGS
  --manifest <file>  JSON manifest describing the steps (check, build).
  --out-dir <dir>    Directory the build writes into. Created if missing.
  --format <list>    Comma-separated output formats: html, docx, md.
                     Default "html,docx,md".
  --name <base>      Base file name for the outputs. Defaults to the manifest
                     file name without its extension.
  --ledger <file>    Append a JSON-lines build record to this file.
  --force            Allow existing output files to be replaced.
  --strict           check only: treat warnings as errors.
  --json             Machine-readable JSON output.

Short forms -m, -o, -f and -n are accepted for --manifest, --out-dir, --format
and --name. Flags may appear before or after positional arguments.

SOURCE IMAGES ARE NEVER MODIFIED. Callouts are drawn on copies written into the
...

Recorded from the shipped binary, not written by hand.

Windows (amd64) macOS (Apple Silicon) macOS (Intel) Linux (amd64)

Source

Every file the program is built from:

annotate.go · console.go · console_test.go · docx.go · glyph.go · guided.go · main.go · main_test.go · manifest.go · render.go

SHA-256 checksums · build instructions & scope notes · full build plan

StepShot

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