Creating Your First Guide
Build in-app walkthroughs and tooltips to onboard and educate users
What are Guides?
Guides are in-app messages that help users discover features, complete onboarding flows, or announce new functionality. They appear directly in your application without code changes.
Tooltips
Point to specific UI elements with contextual help
Modals
Center-screen announcements for major updates
Walkthroughs
Multi-step flows that guide users through tasks
Banners
Top or bottom notifications with CTAs
Creating Your First Guide
Follow these steps to create a simple tooltip guide:
Navigate to Guides
From your Rewatched dashboard, go to Guides in the sidebar and click Create Guide.
Choose Guide Type
Select Tooltip for your first guide. Tooltips are perfect for highlighting new features or explaining UI elements.
Tip: Start with tooltips before building complex multi-step walkthroughs.
Launch Visual Designer
Click Use Visual Designer and enter your application URL. The designer opens your app in an iframe where you can select elements.
- Click the element you want to attach the tooltip to
- It will highlight with a blue outline
- Click Select Element to confirm
Write Your Message
Compose the tooltip content. Keep it concise and actionable:
Example: New Export Feature ✨
Click here to export your analytics data to CSV or Excel. Perfect for sharing with your team!
Configure Positioning
Choose where the tooltip appears relative to the element:
- Top - Above the element
- Bottom - Below the element (most common)
- Left - To the left of the element
- Right - To the right of the element
- Auto - Automatically positions based on available space
Set Targeting Rules
Define who sees the guide and when:
Show to:
All visitors, New users only, Returning users, or Specific segments
When:
On page load, After 3 seconds, On element hover, or Custom trigger
Pages:
Show on specific URLs or URL patterns (e.g., /dashboard/*)
Preview & Test
Before publishing, test your guide:
- Click Preview to see it in your app
- Check positioning on different screen sizes
- Verify the message is clear and actionable
- Test the dismiss behavior
Publish Guide
When you're satisfied, click Publish. The guide goes live immediately for users matching your targeting rules.
Success! Your guide is now live. Monitor engagement in the Guides dashboard.
Creating Multi-Step Walkthroughs
For onboarding flows, create walkthroughs with multiple steps:
- Choose Walkthrough as the guide type
- Add multiple steps, each anchored to a different element
- Configure step navigation (Next, Previous, Skip buttons)
- Set advancement triggers (click element, manual next, auto-advance)
- Add branching logic for different user paths
Pro Tip: Keep walkthroughs to 3-5 steps. Longer flows have higher abandonment rates.
Best Practices
Keep messages short
Aim for 1-2 sentences. Users won't read long paragraphs.
Use action-oriented language
"Click here to export" beats "Export functionality is available here."
Test on real users
Use A/B testing to compare guide variations and optimize engagement.
Don't show too many guides at once
Limit to 1-2 active guides per page to avoid overwhelming users.
Don't use guides for critical information
Users can dismiss guides. Don't rely on them for essential instructions.
Measuring Guide Performance
Track these metrics to understand guide effectiveness:
Views
How many users saw the guide
Completion Rate
Percentage who completed walkthroughs
Dismissals
Users who closed the guide early
Action Rate
Clicks on CTAs within the guide