Capture the action.

Automatic pre-click recording (Shift + Click)

In ordinary screen-capture workflows, clicking a menu item or dialog button immediately changes what is visible on screen—leaving you with a screenshot of the result rather than the control the reader needed to select. Gradatimo’s automatic pre-click recording captures the screen state immediately before your click takes effect and records the click coordinates for your step marker.

1. Open the application you are documenting and navigate to the starting point of the procedure.
2. Verify the active capture trigger (Shift + Click by default) in the recording toolbar and start Record.
3. Perform each action in the target application using your capture trigger.
4. Stop recording and review the generated steps and click-marker placements in Gradatimo.

Local OS accessibility element auto-titling

Gradatimo eliminates manual step title entry by inspecting the local operating system UI accessibility tree at the exact click coordinate:

• Native accessibility APIs: On Windows, Gradatimo uses Win32 IUIAutomation::ElementFromPoint on a background thread. On macOS, it inspects elements via AXUIElementCopyElementAtPosition. Both queries execute locally within milliseconds during capture.
• Semantic title formatting: When you click a supported control, Gradatimo formats the step title using semantic tokens automatically: clicking a button titled Save produces Click [Save]; selecting a menu item produces Select {File}; interacting with checkboxes creates Check [Agree]; and focusing text fields produces Focus [Search].
• Strict privacy & password suppression: If the clicked element is identified as a password input, secure field, credit card number, PIN, or contains masked characters (••••••••), Gradatimo immediately suppresses the accessible label and falls back to a neutral Step N title. Sensitive field values are never captured, inspected, or saved.
• 100% offline with zero AI or OCR: Accessibility auto-titling runs entirely through local operating system APIs. It uses zero AI text generation, zero cloud network requests, zero OCR, and zero keystroke logging.

Active-cursor multi-monitor capture on macOS

For multi-display desktop workstations, Gradatimo’s macOS capture engine uses CGGetDisplaysWithPoint in tandem with per-display ScreenCaptureKit stream buffers. The engine automatically detects which display the active cursor is currently interacting with and captures that display at full native resolution—without requiring you to designate a primary monitor or switch displays manually.

Manual screenshots

Not every step involves a mouse click. Use the Snapshot control whenever you want to capture a static window, an application overview, or a missing step inside an existing lesson without running a continuous recording session.

Importing existing images and photographs

Instructional materials are not limited to computer screens. Click + Image in the left-hand steps panel to import camera photographs, diagrams, or previously saved screenshots. You can mix imported photographs and screen captures freely within the same lesson.

Platform-specific capture permissions

macOS and Windows handle screen capture and global input monitoring through different operating-system mechanisms:

• macOS: Requires permission under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording so Gradatimo can capture windows outside its own interface, and Accessibility permission when using global pre-click coordinate detection.
• Windows: Does not use macOS-style System Settings privacy toggles for standard desktop window capture, though Windows SmartScreen or administrator elevation prompts may appear during installation or when capturing elevated windows.