Phil Wylie

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.

This post continues a series where I shout out apps and services that improve my workflow. These tools often fly under the radar but deserve recognition. Today’s spotlight: a clever solution to the challenge of accurate time tracking.

As a software developer, accurate time tracking can be a challenge. While the ideal solution would be to diligently log my time as I go (a habit I’m still working on!), the reality often falls short of this ideal.

A while back, my friend Dave recommended a utility called InstantShot!. You can set the program to take screenshots at regular intervals. This way, you’ll have a visual record of your day that you can use to piece together timesheets later on. For years, this app was my go-to solution, documenting my day without fuss or fanfare.

While effective, InstantShot! has aged, prompting my search for an alternative—a search that ultimately brought me to ScreenMemory. ScreenMemory is a more elegant approach and offers several advantages over its predecessor.

Unlike InstantShot!, which simply saves screenshots to a directory, ScreenMemory is purpose-built. Its rolling storage allows me to save the past few months of history, and it provides an interface for browsing screenshots. This interface is laid out like a media player; you can browse by date and scrub through the day with a timeline.

I can see exactly what I was working on at any given moment, which allows me to fairly allocate client time and ensures that no billable hour goes unaccounted for.

Far more than just a time-tracking tool, its use extends to various valuable functions: recalling past events, retrieving meeting details, revisiting webpages, and even backing up text. This versatility makes it an indispensable aid for memory and productivity.

ScreenMemory is available for $27, but you can take it for a test drive with a limited free trial. It’s written by Jonathan Winger Lang and you can learn more at his website.

I’ve decided to start a little series about some of the apps, utilities and services I use. Some of the things that make life easier, but are often overlooked. I’ll keep these short—just enough to give an idea of what each tool does and why I like it. Maybe you’ll find something new to try out, or perhaps you’ll have some suggestions of your own.

First up is a little utility called Pure Paste. It’s a simple menu bar utility for Mac that does one thing: it strips formatting when you copy and paste.

My friend Andy recommended this to me, and I’ve got to say: it’s one of those tools that makes you wonder how you ever lived without it.

It saves the frustration of pasting something and then having to clean up the formatting. It’s just much easier for the default to be no formatting, but maybe that’s just me.

I know there’s a “Paste and Match Style” command, but it seems to change between apps. I can never remember the shortcut, and if I tried, I’d probably forget something more important! Pure Paste just sits there and does its thing…

When you do want to keep formatting, you can toggle it on and off. The icon reflects its current status.

It’s one of those tools that doesn’t try to do a million things. It does one job, and it does it well. If you’re tired of fighting with formatted text every time you paste something, give it a shot.

Pure Paste is free, available from the Mac App Store. It’s written by Sindre Sorhus and you can learn more at his website.