It’s frustrating to wait on calls or talk to a bot while exploring a new feature. Data also says that: over 44% of B2B customers opt for a self-serve channel when they need help. 

When you ship a new feature, the fastest way to drive adoption is to publish a clear how-to in your Help Center or docs. Your customers can simply access this information whenever they want, however they want. 

If you’ve been putting off your how-to guide creation because it feels time-consuming, Trupeer makes the process simple. You’ll learn how to transform your process into a professional, self-serve resource that saves both you and your customers time.

What is a How-to Guide? 

Also known as the step-by-step guide, the how-to guide is an instructional content asset that walks you through each step of the process. It could be either a written guide with screenshots or a video walkthrough. Along with the steps, it also lists the best practices, insights, and challenges your customers might face. 

Why Create a How-to Guide? 

Millions of businesses create how-to guides because they answer the user’s queries with clear, valuable information. Here are the biggest benefits of creating a how-to guide. 

1. Answer frequently asked questions 

Support teams often get asked the same questions over and over:

• How do I navigate this feature?

• What steps do I follow to set something up?

• How do I avoid common mistakes?

A well-written how-to guide lives in your knowledge base or help center that your customers and support team can refer to, whenever needed. 

💡 Pro Tip: Collect recurring questions from support tickets or live chat, then convert the top ones into step-by-step guides to keep it user-driven.

2. Offer 24/7 help to your customers

If you’re a one-person product team, you know the pain of support piling up after a new feature launch. Every email, every chat, every “How do I use this?” lands on your plate. Although you can’t be online 24/7, your customers still expect answers immediately.

By publishing a clear step-by-step how-to guide in your knowledge base the day the feature goes live, you give customers the freedom to explore and troubleshoot without waiting for you. 

For early-stage teams, this does two things:

• It reduces reactive support (fewer “Can you show me how?” messages)

• It builds confidence in your product as customers see documentation in place from day one

💡 Pro Tip: Don’t bury user guides in a PDF. Make them searchable, link them inside your product user interface (UI), and surface them in release notes.

3. Educate your audience 

Beyond troubleshooting, guides let you educate your customers how to get more value out of your product. For example, instead of just showing them how to enable a new setting, you can explain why it matters and how it improves their workflow. 

That kind of education keeps users engaged and makes your product stickier, critical when you don’t have a big success team for each account.

📽️ Trupeer Insight: Your customers may not want to rewatch a 3–5 minute video just to find a single step. They might prefer scanning or bookmarking key instructions. You can record the steps on your screen and Trupeer’s AI guide converts them into a how-to guide. Change the text, edit the screenshots, or even add new ones if needed. 

Create Your How-to Guide With Trupeer for Free 

4. Useful for employee onboarding and training 

Contrary to the popular belief that onboarding is just for new hires, every professional move, whether lateral, promotional, or external, needs a positive onboarding experience. This can make the difference between long-term success and a lot of empty seats. 

The how-to guide standardizes knowledge, so that you’re not reinventing the wheel for every role change or training need.

Ways how-to guides help across employee journeys:

• New hires: Step-by-step guides on tools, workflows, and company processes shorten ramp-up time and reduce reliance on 1:1 hand-holding

• Promotions: When someone moves into a leadership or specialist role, guides provide quick references to new systems, approvals, and responsibilities

• Process changes: Keeps everyone aligned when internal tools or workflows get updated 

📽️ Trupeer Insight: If you’re starting your how-to documentation using Trupeer, you could just begin using it easily. There are no migration costs or setup issues and you can share the how-to guides within teams and externally, with a few clicks. 

In the words of one of our users,, “We are using it almost daily - all new documentation and demos are being done using the tool. We have also started expanding into other countries, so translations are working out fairly well.” 

👀 Did You Know? Only 43% of new employees reported an onboarding experience that was more than a day of orientation and a folder of benefits. 

How to Create a How-To Guide Using Trupeer 

The best part of Trupeer for creating step-by-step guides is that you don’t need editing or writing experience. Here’s how to use Trupeer’s AI guide feature to get your guide in less than 30 minutes. 

Step 1: Know your audience and topic 

You know what’s common between the most effective how-to guides? Each guide focuses on one single topic. For example, how to set up meeting notes with Notion AI rather than how to use Notion AI. 

Also, if you’re just starting with making the how-to guide, keep it simple and specific. A first-time user will need more handholding, whereas an advanced user might need more product-specific information. Decide whether you’re targeting a prospect, customer, or internal employee. 

Step 2: Record your content using Trupeer 

Start by downloading Trupeer’s Chrome extension and recording your screen. Just walk through the steps on your screen and talk about it. Trupeer records this as a video. 

Alternatively, if you have a recorded video, sign up on Trupeer and upload it. It can support standard formats and files upto 5 minutes or 150 MB.  

Use Trupeer’s Chrome extension to record your screen, and choose the input language 

Simplify How-to Guide Creation with Trupeer 

Step 3: Trupeer analyzes and generates your how-to guide 

Once you record your screen, click on the document tab on the top left. Trupeer’s AI scans your recording and automatically extracts the main steps. It identifies both the visuals (screenshots) and the text needed to describe each action.

The result is a publish-ready how-to guide, with titles (H1-H6), screenshots, and summaries. 

Step 4: Edit your content 

You know what makes Trupeer extremely user-friendly? It has a word-like editor, which means you can simply click on the sections you want to edit and do that. No coding needed. 

For example, you can rearrange the steps or rename them. You can even add annotations, hyperlinks to other sections or resources, and even edit or delete screenshots. 

👀 Did You Know? Slack’s documentation is available in 11 languages, an activity that started in 2017. This includes emoji localization as well as slash command namespaces. 

Step 5: Rewrite with AI 

Now that you’ve recorded the guide, what if you want to tweak it a bit for, say, advanced users? Or for a different category of users? 

Trupeer AI allows you to add custom instructions and make changes, so that you don’t need to record the guide every time you change the audience (from beginner to advanced). 

Step 6: Translate your guide for localization

You can localize your how-to guide in 9+ languages on Trupeer. That means if your product serves users across different regions, make the documentation accessible in local languages to reduce onboarding friction. 

👀 Did You Know? Over 220 million people use Canva and they’ve created 25 billion designs in 100 languages over 190 countries, making it one of the best localization examples in the SaaS ecosystem.

Step 7: Export and share your how-to guide 

Once you have the final result, export your content as a PDF, Word, or Markdown. You can also share directly via a link or embed into your own Knowledge Base, LMS, or Help Center interface.

💡 Pro Tip: Trupeer allows you to convert this guide into a how-to video that you can download as an MP4 or share via link. 

Read More: How to Announce SaaS Product Updates 

Examples of How-To Guides Done Right

Let’s look at two companies that use how-to guides to educate users about new features and drive product adoption. 

1. Notion 

Every time Notion releases a new feature, it publishes a detailed guide in the help center. In this guide on Notion’s AI meeting notes, you can see a step-by-step guide on how to use the feature in your daily workflow, best practices, and some free templates to help you get started. 

What also stands out in Notion's how-to guides is that it has FAQs for the first-time reader. Also, each guide has a CTA: could be free templates, more reference articles, sign up for the feature, etc.. 

🧠 Fun Fact: The r/Notion subreddit has over 417K members, making it one of the liveliest productivity tool communities on Reddit.

Increase Your Product Adoption with Trupeer’s AI Guide 

2. ClickUp 

When ClickUp launched Custom Autopilot Agents, it published a dedicated how-to guide in its help center that walks users through building their own AI agents step by step. 

The guide breaks the process into modules: setting triggers, adding conditions, choosing actions, assigning knowledge sources, and equipping the agent with tools.

What also stands out in ClickUp’s how-to guides is the structured flow: the article doesn’t just show how to set up an agent, but also explains why each step matters (e.g., choosing knowledge sources ensures your agent gives accurate answers). 

Visual screenshots of the interface reinforce the instructions, and links to related docs (like “What are ClickUp Autopilot Agents?”) give readers context if they need it.

💡 Pro Tip: Make sure the how-to guide caters to multiple audiences. A first-time reader needs FAQs and basics. Power users might want shortcuts or best practices. Balance both by including expandable sections, pro tips, or links to advanced resources.

Best Practices for Creating How-to Guides  

1. Use a modular setup flow 

The last thing you want is to overwhelm your users. Keep it skimmable. 

Break down the guide into phases. Use headings and subheadings along with visual dividers to differentiate each section. Consider adding progress indicators (Step 2 of 5) to show users they’re moving forward. 

The other benefit of keeping it modular is that it can be repurposed. Step 2 can become a microguide or FAQ when needed. 

Read More: How to Repurpose Demo Videos into Marketing Content 

2. Incorporate assistive elements within the guide

In times when your reader hits friction at specific points, use assistive elements like tooltips, video clips/GIFs, or inline FAQs to help the reader without breaking the flow.

3. Embed the how-to guide in the product UI itself

You want the guide to feel like a natural extension of the product. Also, it leads to higher adoption rates because users learn about the feature in the flow of work. For example, Notion embeds AI Meeting Notes directly in the workspace with a simple “/meet” command. 

Bonus: The same how-to guide can be in the help center, in-line help, product tour, and even release notes. One guide, multiple touchpoints. 

4. Show why each step matters

Without context into why each step matters, your users may make mistakes later, skip important steps, or fail to see the value behind what they’re doing. 

This could mean highlighting risks of skipping a step. “If you don’t assign a knowledge source, your agent may reply with incomplete information.”

Or connecting steps to business value. “This setting makes your reports exportable, so you can share results with clients in one click.” 

For the users to see a practical application, you could even add micro-examples. “For example, a sales team might use this setting to…” so readers see practical applications.

📽️ Trupeer Insight: When you record with Trupeer, you can annotate each auto-generated step with a short note explaining why it matters. This ensures your training material doesn’t just show the how, but also teaches the why.

Simplify Your How-to Guide Creation with Trupeer 

Although how-to guides have numerous benefits: reduce support tickets and costs, increase product adoption, and scale onboarding without additional headcount, creating and maintaining them is hard work. 

Trupeer changes that for you. Trupeer gives you an all-in-one workflow: record once, and get a polished, multi-format guide ready to publish in under 30 minutes. Whether you’re supporting new customers, training employees, or documenting a product release, Trupeer makes sure your knowledge base scales with your business.

Write Your First How-to Guide for Free with Trupeer 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

1. What is the best format for a how-to guide?

The best format is step-by-step, modular, and visual. Break instructions into numbered steps so readers can follow a clear sequence. Pair each step with visuals like screenshots or GIFs. Add a short intro that explains why the process matters and a closing section with FAQs or a CTA so readers know what to do next.

2. What makes an effective how-to guide?

An effective guide does more than list steps; it answers questions, removes ambiguity, and helps users succeed on their own. This means:

• Writing in clear, active language (“Click Save” vs. “The button should be clicked”)

• Providing context (“Do this to avoid losing changes”)

• Anticipating roadblocks with troubleshooting tips

• Making the guide accessible for both first-time and advanced users 

3. How can I improve my how-to guide’s readability and learning retention?

To improve readability:

• Use short paragraphs, white space, and scannable headings

• Highlight key terms or warnings with bold or callouts

• Stick to one action per step

To improve retention:

• Add visual cues (arrows, highlights, captions)

• Reinforce the “why” behind steps so readers remember the logic, not just the clicks

• Provide downloadable checklists or templates for repeated use

4. How does Trupeer generate a guide from my screen recording?

Trupeer analyzes your recording or uploaded video to detect key actions and sequence the steps with supporting screenshots. It delivers a complete, structured guide in minutes.

5. Can I create a how-to guide for free using Trupeer? 

Yep. With Trupeer’s free tier, you can record your screen once and the platform will auto-generate a detailed, step-by-step guide complete with screenshots and text instructions. You can then export it as PDF, Word, or Markdown without paying, making it easy to start building a knowledge base or help center even if you’re a solo product team.