This post is part of a little series where I share apps and services that help me work more efficiently. Good tools fade into the background and let you focus on what matters. You often don’t realise how much you rely on them—until they’re gone.

A key part of my role is clearly communicating processes and explaining how things work. What seems simple in your own mind can often be surprisingly difficult to explain to someone else. That’s why there’s nothing more effective—or reassuring—than walking someone through it step-by-step, avoiding doubt and miscommunication along the way.

Scheduling a call can sometimes seem like overkill. It’s both time-consuming and relies on memory. A written document can be referred back to, but creating formal documentation can also be surprisingly time-consuming—especially if you want it to look polished.

Clarify

I stumbled across Clarify many years ago, courtesy of a MacHeist bundle. It was one of those happy accidents—I’d bought the bundle for something else entirely, but ended up falling in love with this simple, focused tool that solved a problem I didn’t even know I had.

Creating documentation that combines screenshots, annotations, and clear instructions typically requires juggling multiple tools. Clarify was a wonderfully straightforward solution—it captured a series of screenshots, which could then be captioned and annotated, before being exported as a PDF guide using a consistent, branded template.

If you were already writing step-by-step instructions in an email and attaching a few screenshots, creating a complete guide with Clarify took no more effort—but the result was both easier to follow and far more refined.

Clarify was eventually discontinued, but I continued using it for many years—until a macOS update suddenly broke it. I’d lost a tool I’d come to depend on. It sounds odd to feel a sense of loss over software, but I had to come to terms with the fact that Clarify wasn’t coming back!

Folge

In my search for a replacement, I found that many solutions were geared towards enterprise—ideal for building large-scale knowledge bases, but overly complex for my needs and priced accordingly.

Folge caught my attention with its intuitive workflow that closely matched what I loved about Clarify. It’s purpose-built for creating step-by-step documentation—letting you capture, annotate, and export in one streamlined process.

When capturing a workflow, you can automatically record steps by clicking the mouse or for more control, pressing a key in combination with clicking. A delayed capture option makes it possible to document selections that would otherwise disappear on click.

The editor lets you quickly add captions, crop images, and annotate them. You can circle elements, draw arrows, place numbered markers to clarify multi-step actions, overlay text boxes, highlight areas, and blur sensitive information—all helping to create clear, focused documentation.

Folge’s templating system is excellent. You can include a cover page with your logo and document title, then define the fonts and colours used throughout the guide. The result is a consistent, professional-looking PDF—perfect for attaching to client emails or sharing internally.

Conclusion

Developed by Oleksii Sribnyi and available for both Mac and Windows at folge.me. There’s a limited free version that’s perfect for trying it out, and the full version is reasonably priced with a one-time payment.

Folge removes the friction from documenting workflows, producing clean, professional, and consistent documents you’re proud to share with clients. For me, it picks up where Clarify left off—bringing back the simplicity I missed, with a few welcome improvements along the way.