Capturing a Demo

The HowdyGo extension makes capturing a demo as easy as clicking through the flow you want to demo in your app. Follow this simple guide to capture your first demo - it will only take a minute!

Download the HowdyGo Chrome Extension

Before you can get started, you'll need to install the HowdyGo Chrome Extension (opens in a new tab).

Once you've installed it, it will suggest that you pin the extension to your Chrome toolbar. You don't have to, but it makes it much easier to control the extension while you're capturing.

Starting a Capture

When you start capturing a demo, the extension will capture a snapshot of the page you're on whenever you click. Simply put, 1 click = 1 step in the demo. If you mess up a click, don't sweat it - this isn't a video recording and you get plenty of editing features once you're done to tweak the demo exactly how you want it.

Before you start, the extension provides you with a suggested optimal screen size. You don't have to use this and can resize your window to any size you want, but the important thing to keep in mind is to not make the recording too big, else it will look tiny for people viewing on a monitor smaller than yours.

When you're ready, just click the big red "Start Recording" button pictured below and click through your app!

Recording interactions

While it might look like we're just capturing static steps, that's not quite the case. In the editor you can actually enable animated playback. So if you type something, or you drag and drop something, you can replay that entire interaction to the viewer!

Controls

Once you're recording, there are two ways to control the extension:

1. Using the popup that displays when you click on the extension in the toolbar.
2. Using the on-screen recording companion that appears in the bottom-right of your screen.

Both options provide similar functionality:

• A counter showing you how many clicks you've made so far and therefore how many steps the demo will have
• Ability to cancel the recording if you want to start again
• Ability to pause recording if you want to make some clicks without them being recorded
• Stop recording function to finish and save the recording

Switching tabs

If you need to record the demo across multiple open tabs, it's super easy. Just switch to the tab you want to continue recording on, and click the Record this tab prompt that will appear at the bottom of the page.

Saving a Capture

When you've finished capturing the flow you want to demo, click "Stop Recording" and we will start to upload everything we need to reproduce your demo. The first time you record a demo it might take a little while to finish uploading. Subsequent recordings are usually quicker, unless there are lots of images or large files in your app.

Once your demo has finished uploading, you will be instantly launched into our editor.