How-to videos for help centers
Add a captioned how-to video and a written guide to each help article, filmed from your live product and embedded with one snippet.
The problem
A help article full of screenshots is out of date the day the interface changes, and one without them asks the reader to turn words into clicks. A short video of the task shows the clicks — but a help center has dozens of articles, and recording, captioning and hosting a video for each is a project nobody has time for.
Help videos also have to work for everyone: people reading with the sound off, people using a screen reader, and people who would rather skim the steps than watch them.
How Demofy makes it
Captions and a written guide come with a narrated video: a WebVTT caption track built from the narration as it was spoken (it is dropped if you replace the soundtrack), and a written walkthrough of the same steps that names each button the way a person would. Captions, transcript and written guide
It embeds in any help center that accepts an iframe. The snippet sizes itself to the column and to the video’s real shape, and the embedded page is never indexed on its own. Sharing and embedding
Captions in the picture by default, and you can turn them off or change the style — the styles are off, plate and minimal — while the caption file is written either way. The look and the brand kit
When a screen changes, press Refresh on that article’s video to film a new version. If a capture fails on a step that moved, it is re-shot once automatically, and every version is kept. The kinds of job
Signed-in screens included, through a saved session you set up once. Recording behind a login
Make one
- 1
Paste the URL of the screen where the task starts. A signed-in screen needs a saved session first.
- 2
Write one line of intent. For this job, for example:
Show how an admin resets a team member’s password from the settings page
- 3
Follow the build log while Demofy plans the steps, films them and renders the video, then change any line in the script editor.
Try it here: paste the URL and one line of intent below. A guest needs no account and no card.
Filming it yourself instead? How to make a product demo video walks through the plan, the recording, the finish and what to do when the product changes.
Where it falls short
- Nothing is re-filmed on a timer. A re-shoot happens when somebody presses Refresh, or when a capture breaks on a step that moved — so after a release, somebody still has to press the button.
- A re-shoot is a new version with its own link. An embed keeps showing the version it was made from until you swap in the new snippet — deliberately, so a video never changes under a published article.
- It films web products only — what a browser can open. A desktop application or a native mobile app needs a screen recorder.
Questions people ask
Do help-center videos need captions?
Yes — for accessibility, and because many people watch with the sound off. Demofy writes a caption track for a narrated video (not if you replace its soundtrack), and burns captions into the picture by default — a setting turns that off.
Can I embed the videos in my help center?
If your help-center editor accepts an HTML iframe, yes. The share popover gives you the snippet, it needs no plugin, and it sizes itself to the column.
What happens to embedded videos when the product changes?
Each embed keeps playing the video it was made from. Press Refresh to film a new version, then replace the snippet in the article with the new version’s and revoke the old link.
New to the category? What an AI product demo video generator is sets Demofy beside screen recorders and avatar videos, and the comparisons take the named tools one at a time. What each plan includes is on the pricing page.