How to record WordPress training videos for a client’s own site.

The recording workflow

1. Pick the tasks from the client’s real work

   List what this client will change in a normal quarter. For most sites that is six to ten tasks. If a task happens once a year, such as renewing the domain, write it down in the summary and skip the video.

2. Create the account the client will use

   Add the client as a user with the Editor role and record while logged in as an Editor. The dashboard menu then shows only what they will see. Keep Administrator tasks for a separate short set aimed at the site owner.

3. Put the site in a recordable state

   Record on a staging copy, or on the live site with drafts titled “TEST – delete me”. Set the browser zoom so labels are readable, close other tabs, and keep order lists and form entries off screen.

4. Record one task per video

   Say the task name, do it from the dashboard to the published page, and stop. Two to four minutes. If you pass five, the task is really two tasks.

5. Number and name the files

   Use a two-digit number and the task in plain words: 03-add-a-project.mp4. Numbers give the client a viewing order; the words let them search the folder.

6. Write the index and deliver

   One document: each video’s name, length, and a one-line description, followed by the things the client should not change. Put the MP4s and the index in a folder the client owns.

7. Update a clip when the screen changes

   After a major WordPress, theme or plugin update, open the site next to the index and check each video against the screen. Re-record the steps that no longer match and replace those files.

Which WordPress tasks to record for a client

Start from this list and delete what the client will not do. The Role column tells you which account to record from: an Editor can create and publish posts and pages and use the Media Library, but does not see Appearance, Plugins or Settings. Anything in those areas belongs in the owner’s set, recorded from an Administrator account.

Lengths are our editorial guidance. The custom rows are the ones that matter most, because no public tutorial covers the project type, booking plugin or page builder layout you set up for this client.

A script for a 3-minute WordPress task video

Every video in the set uses the same five lines. The repetition is deliberate: by the third video the client knows where the result will be shown and stops worrying about missing it.

Filled in, the first two lines of a real one read: “This video shows how to add a project to the Projects page. You need the project photos, at least 1600 pixels wide, and the text.” The client knows in ten seconds whether this is the video they need and what to have ready.

• Task (5 seconds): “This video shows how to [task] on [site name].”
• What you need (5–10 seconds): “Have [text, images, file] ready. You need to be logged in.”
• Steps (1.5–3 minutes): “In the left menu, click [menu item]. Click [button name]. In [field], type [what]. Click [button name].” One sentence per click, with the label said exactly as it appears.
• Result (15 seconds): “Now open the page on the site. [What changed] is here.” Hold it on screen for two seconds.
• If it goes wrong (10 seconds): “If [most common problem], [what to do]. If you are unsure, do not publish; write to [contact].”

Worked example: nine videos for an architecture studio’s WordPress site

The studio’s site has standard pages, a Journal (the blog), and a custom Projects section where each project has a gallery, a location and a year. The marketing coordinator has the Editor role; the founding partner is the Administrator.

Seven videos are recorded from the Editor account and two from the Administrator account, prefixed “owner” so nobody sends the coordinator a video about screens she cannot open. The whole set runs about 24 minutes, and no single video passes four.

Video 03 is the one that pays for the set. The Projects section is custom, the gallery has a required image order, and before the videos existed every new project meant an email to you.

Record on the live site or on a staging copy?

The question is what else is on screen. A brochure site’s dashboard shows pages and posts, and recording it live is fine. A shop or a site with forms shows customer names, emails and addresses the moment you open the orders or entries screen, and no free or paid tool on this page will find and hide that for you: QuickTime Player has no blur, and Qreata blurs only what you point it at, either interface elements you pick before the take or a fixed rectangle you add in the editor.

A staging copy is the safer default, with one condition: it has to look like the live site. Same theme, same plugins, same menu. If staging is three weeks behind, the video teaches a screen the client does not have.

How to deliver WordPress training videos to a client

Deliver files, in a folder the client owns, with an index that makes them findable. A hosted link from your own account is convenient for the first week and a liability later: the videos should not depend on a plan you pay for.

Short single-task videos also solve a problem that long ones have. A plain MP4 has no chapters, so in a 25-minute file the client has to scrub to find the two minutes they need. Nine files with clear names need no chapters.

• The MP4 files, numbered and named by task, in a folder in the client’s own Google Drive, Dropbox or file server.
• An index document in the same folder: file name, length, one line on what the video shows, and the date it was recorded.
• A short “do not change” list: the theme, the plugins, the settings, and any page that controls the layout of others.
• User accounts created for each person by invitation. No passwords in the index, the videos, or the email.
• A line on what happens next: which requests are covered by your care plan or retainer and which are quoted separately.
• Your own copy of the recording projects and a note of the window size and browser zoom you recorded at.

The free Mac route, and what Qreata adds for a video library

Shift-Command-5 records the screen and your microphone for free and saves a .mov to the desktop; choose your microphone and Show Mouse Clicks under Options. For a set of nine short videos recorded once, that works. QuickTime Player trims the ends and can split a mistake out. What it cannot do is zoom in on the dashboard’s small controls, add captions, or re-record a step inside an existing video.

That last limit is the one a WordPress library runs into, because updates move things. Say a plugin update changes the gallery field in the Projects editor, so 1:05–1:25 of 03-add-a-project.mp4 now shows a screen the coordinator does not have. In Qreata you open that project, pick Replace Take (the Rerecord tool in the editor), Shift-drag across 1:05–1:25, and record the new gallery step in the same window size. Screen, camera, microphone and system audio in that range are replaced; the other 3:40 stays. The range has to sit inside one segment and can’t cross a cut, a shorter retake is rejected, and a longer one is trimmed. Export, replace the one file in the client’s folder, and update the date in the index.

Dashboard controls are small, and clients often watch in a narrow window next to the site. Auto-zoom on clicks (off by default; it needs the macOS Accessibility permission to place clicks precisely) zooms where you clicked, and you can add or delete zooms by hand. The cursor is recorded as data, so you can enlarge it and highlight clicks after the take. Captions in video burns word-highlighted captions into the MP4.

Qreata records, edits and transcribes on your Mac with no account, and uploads nothing unless you press an upload button, which is a reasonable standard when a client’s dashboard is on screen. Microphone and system audio are separate tracks with their own Mute and 0–200% Volume, so a notification sound in the take can be silenced without touching your voice. You can copy the transcript text and use it as the first draft of the index.

Limits that affect this job: no automatic detection of customer data (blur is placed by hand), no chapters, no SRT file, no viewer analytics, no import of videos recorded elsewhere, Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later only, and an English app interface. It costs $49 once for three Macs with all future updates, or $149 once for a studio of up to 50 Macs, so there is no per-seat subscription to carry between launches. A ten-minute trial test: record the “add a post” video for a site you maintain, export it, then reopen the project and replace one step.

Common mistakes in WordPress client training videos

Most of these come from recording what you know about WordPress and not what the client needs to do.

• Recording as Administrator for an Editor. The client’s menu is shorter than the one in the video, and they stop trusting the video.
• Explaining WordPress. The client does not need to know what a taxonomy is. They need to know which box to tick.
• Showing plugin and theme updates to someone who should not run them. If you maintain the site, leave updates out entirely.
• One 30-minute “everything” video. Nobody finds minute 17 again; record separate tasks.
• Saying “click here”. Say the label, so the instruction still works when the client looks away from the video.
• No recording date. After the next redesign of the editor, the client cannot tell whether the video or the site is out of date.
• Keeping only the exported files. The next update then costs a full retake of every affected video.

Questions about this workflow