Getting started
Introduction
What Escourtly captures, how demos are structured, and the vocabulary the rest of the docs use.
The 30 second version
Escourtly has three parts:
- The Chrome extension records your product. Every click you make becomes a step.
- The editor at escourtly.com is where you polish the recording: descriptions, hotspots, blur, zoom, reordering, adding steps.
- The share page is what your viewers see: a clean, clickable walkthrough they can step through at their own pace.
What actually gets captured
For every step, Escourtly saves:
- A full HTML snapshot of the page. This is the secret sauce: your demo renders real text and real layout, so it stays crisp at any zoom level and any screen size. Competitors usually charge enterprise prices for this.
- A screenshot used for thumbnails in your dashboard and step list.
- The click position and the clicked element's outline, so hotspots and highlights land exactly where you clicked.
- The page URL and viewport size, so playback lays everything out exactly as you saw it.
Snapshots are frozen
A snapshot is a copy of the page at the moment you clicked. Nothing in it is live: buttons don't submit, scripts don't run, and links don't navigate. That is by design, both for safety and so your demo never changes underneath you.
Vocabulary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Demo | One walkthrough, made of ordered steps. Also called a guide. |
| Step | One captured moment: snapshot, screenshot, click position, annotation. |
| Hotspot | The visual marker showing where the action is on a step. |
| Annotation | The text bubble on a step: a heading plus a description. |
| Draft | A demo only you can see. Everything starts as a draft. |
| Published | A demo with a public share link. Publishing freezes a copy, so later edits don't go live until you publish again. |
Requirements
- Google Chrome (or a Chromium browser that supports Chrome extensions) for recording.
- Any modern browser for editing and viewing. Viewers don't need Chrome, an extension, or an account.
- An Escourtly account with a verified email address.
Ready? Install the extension.