Build your first tour
Go from nothing to a published, shareable tour in one sitting, capturing your app, letting ShowPilot write it, then publishing and sharing the link.
The quickest way to see what tours can do is to make one. In one sitting you can capture a real walkthrough of your product, let ShowPilot plan and write it, fix the words that matter, publish it and send the link to a colleague. Every stage below links to a deeper page when you want more control.
You're in the right place when you've never built a tour and want the shortest path to a live link.
What will you end up with?
A tour is an ordered set of screens from your product, with steps on them: tooltips that point at part of the screen, and cards that sit in the middle of it. By the end of this guide you'll have:
- A tour of five to ten screens, captured as live HTML from your app.
- Step titles and text written by ShowPilot for the audience you pick.
- A published tour with a share link anyone can open, with no sign-up.
What do you need?
| You need | Why |
|---|---|
| Chrome with the ShowPilot Capture extension | It captures your app. See Capture with the extension for install and sign-in. |
| Your app, signed in, with sample data | Viewers see exactly what you capture. Use an account with realistic, non-sensitive data. |
| A short story to tell | Know where the tour starts and what it should end on, such as a report, an approval or a booking. |
| Audiences in Settings → Context (optional) | The writing is tailored to the audience you pick. Four audiences are there by default. See Audiences. |
Before you capture, open the page in your app where the tour should start, close any banners or notifications you don't want in the shots, and size your browser window the way you want the tour to look.
How do you build and publish a tour?
Start a new tour
In ShowPilot, go to Tours and select New tour. Under Start by, keep Taking new captures.
- Capture as: keep HTML — every element stays live.
- App URL: paste the address of the page where the tour starts.
- ShowPilot ✦ writes for: pick the audience, such as Sales. Leave the switch on.
Optionally, open Advanced and add a Brief, such as "Show a finance lead how approvals work and end on the export."
Select Start capturing. Your app opens in a new tab with the capture bar already showing. See Create a tour for every other starting point.
Click through your app
Click through your product the way you'd show it to a prospect. Every click saves a screen, and the bar counts them.
- To move around without saving screens, select Pause. Select it again to resume.
- To capture a hover state or an open menu without clicking, press ⇧S.
- Keep it short. Five to ten screens with a clear ending make a better tour than twenty.
If the capture bar doesn't appear, open the extension in that tab and select Start capturing yourself. See Capture with the extension.
Finish
Select Finish on the capture bar. ShowPilot takes a final shot, brings you back to your new hub and assembles the tour: screens in click order, with a step anchored on each click.
The tour opens in the builder in Preview, with the New Tour planning window on top.
Let ShowPilot plan and write it
In the New Tour window:
- Select ✦ AI generated.
- Check the Audience, and optionally describe What should this tour show? Select Continue.
- If ShowPilot asks a question or two, answer them, or select Skip the questions.
- Review the plan: the Title, what it Closes on and one Beat per screen. Switch off any screen the story doesn't need.
- Select Build.
A banner says ShowPilot is writing your script. You can keep working while it runs. When it says "Script written ✦", the step titles, talk track and button copy are in. See Create a tour for every step of the plan.
Watch it once
With Preview selected at the top of the builder, click through the tour as a viewer would. Note any step whose words aren't right, or that points at the wrong thing.
Edit a step
Select Build at the top of the builder. The storyboard on the left lists every screen with its steps.
- Select a step in the storyboard. Its settings open on the right.
- Change the Title and Description. Changes save as you go, and Save changes confirms them.
- To remove a step you don't need, hover it in the storyboard and select Delete step.
To add a step, select Add step at the top left of the canvas and choose Guide (a tooltip on an element), Lightbox (a centered card) or Link (a tooltip that goes somewhere when clicked). Then click the element it should point at.
The builder has much more: rewriting text on the screen, hiding customer names, camera moves, voiceover and more. See The builder, Step types and Edit screen elements.
Publish
Select Publish at the top right of the builder. When it shows Published ✓, the header shows a Live · rev 1 chip.
Publishing freezes this version for viewers. Keep editing whenever you like: viewers see nothing new until you select Update. If a step has no title or text, ShowPilot tells you which screen it's on so you can fill it in or delete it first. See Publish and revisions.
Share the link
Go back to Tours, find your tour and select Share. On the Link tab, select Copy link.
Send the link to a colleague, or paste it into an email. Anyone with the link can open the tour, no sign-up needed. The same window has an Embed tab for putting the tour on your website. See Share links and Embed a tour.
Test it
Your first tour is live when:
- You open the copied link in a private browser window, where you aren't signed in to ShowPilot.
- The tour opens and plays from the first screen, and you can click through every step to the end.
- Back in ShowPilot, the tour shows a Live status on the Tours tab.
- Your test play appears under Tours → Insights. Plays you start from inside ShowPilot, such as the builder's preview, aren't counted.
What should you do next?
| Next step | Where |
|---|---|
| Correct what your agent knows about each screen | Screen context |
| Match the tooltips to your brand | Style guides |
| Set how the tour opens, its pace and its narration | Tour settings |
| Group tours behind one link with a checklist | Hubs and Checklists |
| Let your agent present the tour in a conversation | Let your agent present a tour |
| See who played it and where they dropped off | Tour analytics |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| The capture bar never appeared | Open the extension in the app tab and start capturing. Check the extension is installed, enabled and signed in to the same workspace. |
| The planning window didn't open | You may have switched the writing off. Look for the "No script yet" banner in the builder and select Write it ✦. |
| A step points at the wrong element | Select the step and use Reselect element, then click the right element. |
| Publish fails with a message about a step with no text | Find the screen it names, then add a title or description to the step, or delete it. |
| Share shows "Publish to share" | The tour is still a draft. Publish it first. |
| The link doesn't open the tour | Check the tour is published and that Serving is on in the tour's settings. |
FAQ
Do viewers need an account to take the tour?
No. Anyone with the link can open a published tour, with no sign-up.
Can I change the tour after I publish it?
Yes. Keep editing in the builder, then select Update to publish the changes. Viewers keep seeing the previous version until you do.
Where did my captures go?
They're in your library under Tours → Captures, grouped as a collection inside the tour's hub. You can build more tours from them later.
Why is my tour in a hub?
Every tour lives in a hub. A hub with one tour stays out of your way. When you add more tours, a checklist or context, the hub gives them one shared link. See Hubs.
Can my agent present this tour?
Yes, once it's published and in a hub your agent can reach. See Let your agent present a tour.
Related articles
Tours
What a tour is, how one goes from a capture to a live link your agent can present, and where every tours feature is documented.
Capture with the extension
Install ShowPilot Capture in Chrome, choose a capture type and a destination, and click or record through your app to make the screens every tour is built from.