Learn · Maintenance
How to update software training after a release
Training that was accurate the day it shipped is teaching a screen that no longer exists a few releases later. This is the maintenance routine for a Shadow Capture walkthrough: which changes are a sentence, which are a second recording, and how to tell from the release notes alone.
A moved or renamed control is an edit: point at the new control, say which step it belongs to, and check the result. A redesigned screen, a new required step, or a changed decision is a second recording of the task, and the old walkthrough stays as it was until you replace it. Shadow Capture does not watch your product for changes; you update a walkthrough when you decide to.
First, know what a walkthrough is made of
A walkthrough is a set of recorded pages, one per step, plus the step definitions: which control each step targets, and the text around it. That structure decides what an update costs. Text is free to change. A target on an existing page is cheap to change. A page that no longer looks like the product is the expensive case, and the only one that needs the extension again.
Sort the change before you open anything
| What the release did | What it costs | How |
|---|---|---|
| Renamed a label or a menu item | A sentence | AI assist: "the Send reply button is now called Post" |
| Moved a control on the same screen | A sentence and a click | AI assist: Point at an element, then "step three targets this now" |
| Changed a name, figure or piece of data on the screens | A sentence | AI assist: "rename the customer to Fay Ceramics on every screen" |
| Changed the options in a dropdown | A sentence, then review | Edit the step's feedback for the new options; check the wrong-choice lines still make sense |
| Added a required step, or removed one | A second recording | Record the task again; the step list has changed shape |
| Redesigned the screen | A second recording | Record again; a page that does not look like the product teaches the wrong thing |
| Changed the policy the decision is based on | Edit, then think | Rewrite the scenario and the feedback; the screens may be fine |
The one-sentence edit
- Open the editor. From the walkthrough's card, More options and then Edit. The player opens with the editing panel beside the recorded screen.
- Go to the affected step in the rail. Read the instruction, caption and hint against the new product. Often the label is the only thing that changed.
- Describe the change. Open AI assist… and write what happened: "the status dropdown is now called State and sits at the bottom of the thread". For a moved control, Point at an element and click it on the recorded page, then say which step it belongs to. Apply with AI rewrites what needs rewriting and validates the result before saving it.
- Play the step. Play step in Show me, then You try. If the result is worse, Undo last AI edit restores the version before it.
- Export again. The SCORM package or file you published is a snapshot; replace it in the LMS or wherever it lives. Learners who already completed the old one keep their record.
What this cannot do: an edit changes text and targets on the pages you recorded. If the control the step needs is not on the recorded page at all, because the screen was redesigned, there is nothing to point at, and the answer is a recording.
The second recording
- Perform the task again in the updated product, with the extension recording, exactly as the first time. Use the same scenario data if you can; it keeps the feedback lines reusable.
- Author it from the Authoring queue. The new draft is separate from the old walkthrough, so nothing learners are using changes until you are ready.
- Carry across what you had edited. Open the old walkthrough beside the new one and move over any feedback or scenario wording you had refined. Shadow Capture writes fresh text for the new recording; your policy wording is yours to keep.
- Replace the export in the LMS, and keep the old walkthrough until the cohort on it has finished.
A routine that keeps it true
- Read release notes with the step list open. For each walkthrough, the step list on its page here is the checklist: does any step mention a control this release touched?
- Assign an owner per walkthrough, usually the person who recorded it. They know the task and will notice a change before a learner does.
- Play every walkthrough once a quarter in You try, at the pace of a new starter. Allow enough time to check the instructions, screens and feedback.
- Run the replay check after a big release. On the Review capture page, Verify replay plays every step and reports targets it could not find. It checks the recorded pages, not the live product, so it catches an edit that went wrong rather than a release that changed things; the quarterly play is still the release check.
The honest limits
- Shadow Capture does not detect that your product changed. Nothing watches the live system, and a walkthrough is exactly as current as its last recording or edit.
- An edit cannot add a control that is not on the recorded page.
- There is no version-history browser yet. Every save keeps the previous version and the last AI edit is undoable; anything older is on disk and takes a support request to restore.