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Step Instructions & Guidance

Jul 1, 2022

Having clear step instructions and guidance help people understand how to do things correctly, the first time.

In Pipeline, we give you the ability to include clear, actionable instructions with each step so that there's no confusion as to what needs to be done. For example:

Here's a solution guide on how to make your instructions simple, clear, and actionable for your users.

Add details

Details are what turns vague, confusing instructions and clear, actionable instructions.

 With Details

Send the customer invoice by:

  • Create the customer invoice
    • Use the corporate invoice template
  • Email the invoice to accounting@company.com 
 Without Details

Send customer invoice

Add formatting

Use formatting to make your instructions easy-to-read and quickly scannable.

Use bullets

Use bullets to simplify long instructions and make them scannable.

 With Bullets

Send the customer invoice by:

  • Create the customer invoice
    • Use the corporate invoice template
  • Email the invoice to accounting@company.com 
 Without Bullets

Send the customer invoice by creating the customer invoice using the corporate invoice template. Then, email the invoice to accounting@company.com. 

Format text

Make text bold, highlight text, even add emoji's to call attention to key instructions.

 With Bullets

Send the customer invoice by:

  • Create the customer invoice
    • 🚩 Use the corporate invoice template
  • Email the invoice to accounting@company.com 
 Without Bullets

Send the customer invoice by:

  • Create the customer invoice
    • Use the corporate invoice template
  • Email the invoice to accounting@company.com

Add links and attach files

Need people to use a specific file or template? Don't force them to go hunt for the file. Just attach it directly with the instructions!

 With Links and Attachments

Send the customer invoice by:

 Without Links or Attachments

Send the customer invoice by:

  • Create the customer invoice
    • Use the corporate invoice template
  • Email the invoice to accounting@company.com

Embed images

Need to clarify your instructions? Sometimes the easiest way to show someone how to do something is to show an image or provide a screenshot.

Embed video

If a picture is worth one thousand words, then a video must be worth a thousand pictures! That's why if you have complex instructions, embed a short video with your instructions to avoid any confusion.

Here's how! In the step, you can either record a video, upload a video, or embed a video:

 Record a video

To record a video, click the media icon → General tab.

Then, click on the upload icon and click the video icon to start recording your video either via your webcam or mobile video camera.

 Upload a video

To upload a video, click the media icon → General tab.

Then, click on the upload icon and click the desktop icon to select your video file.

 Embed a video

If your video is already online (ex: hosted on YouTube), just find the Share link and copy the embed code for your video.

Then, click the media icon → Embed tab, then paste in the video embed code.

For simplicity, we recommend hosting your videos on YouTube, so that you can access the video analytics. Note, for YouTube embedded videos, be sure to add ?rel=0 after your Url.

This ensures that YouTube will only recommend videos from your channel (instead of random videos) after your video plays.

Add Thumbnail

Note, email clients do NOT display embedded videos. If you want the video to appear in an email, you'll need to embed an thumbnail that links to the step and make the image email-only.

For optimum performance, especially on mobile, we recommend that video thumbnails be 300x169.

Make instructions appear ONLY in email

Sometimes, you want certain instructions to only appear email, ex: your email signature or video thumbnails. You can easily do that by highlighting the text and changing the format to Paragraph: Email Only.

After that, you'll be see the email-only instructions annotated with Email only:

Make instructions relevant and specific

Show instructions that are specific to the user and their specific situation by using Content Variables and Formulas, see solution guide. This minimizes the amount of text users have to read and eliminates confusion.

Step Instruction Templates

Do you want to add a button or simply get some ideas on what to write in for instructions? Click on the rubber stamp icon!

 

When using the template for a button, update the URL and button name in the code view.

<p class="user-button mceTmpl"><a href="https://www.example.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Button Name</a></p>