User Guide

Capture Sessions

A Capture Session is an editable local project. Its capture lifecycle is shown separately from document status:

  • Recording, Paused, or Completed describes capture activity.
  • Draft, In Review, Published, or Archived describes authored document status.

Saving does not publish or permanently complete a session. You can resume capture, edit without recording, or duplicate work as a new draft.

Capture content

Lyreline supports user-initiated visible-window capture for selected Mac applications and full-page capture for supported Safari workflows. You can also import an image or add written steps. If a requested capture fails, Lyreline does not silently create a lower-quality fallback moment.

For a full-page Safari capture, Lyreline measures the page, captures bounded ordered segments, stitches one upright image, and restores the original scroll position. Do not interact with the page while this operation is running.

Presentation editing

Capture Presentation keeps the original image immutable. Available non-destructive edits include:

  • outer-boundary crop;
  • redactions, highlights, rectangles, and numbered callouts;
  • multiple retained regions with labels, section numbers, ordering, and export inclusion;
  • condensed or original-position region layouts;
  • undo and redo.

Use Fit Width for tall captures. Actual Size is the stable 100% baseline; 200% and 400% are absolute multiples of that baseline. Overlay coordinates stay aligned to the original image at every zoom level.

A numbered callout combines a marker with an optional label, leader line, and visual target. Link a selected callout to the Procedure instruction it explains when one image contains several annotated actions or areas. The link remains stable even if the visible callout number changes.

Callouts remain non-destructive presentation edits and do not alter the original captured image. See Numbered Callouts for details.

Procedures and review

Included moments can become ordered Procedure steps. Organize steps into sections, add instructions and expected results, and review each presentation before publication. Publication Review keeps unresolved moments visible until they are approved or intentionally returned for changes.

A fictional Northstar work-order example may be used to learn the workflow. It contains demonstration-only names and data and is not a customer environment.

Continue in Lyreline Studio

Lyreline Studio is an optional advanced composition workspace for authored procedure content and presentation data. A supported Lyreline → Studio → Lyreline round trip preserves images, presentation edits, numbered callouts, optional labels, and instruction links. Studio-authored sections return to Lyreline as Procedure steps without fabricating Capture Moments or changing historical capture provenance.

Detailed handoff and publication instructions are provided in the separate Lyreline Studio documentation.

Export and publication

Lyreline can export the current presentation as a combined PNG or, when retained regions exist, as ordered separate PNG files. Procedure publication creates a PDF from the saved document and presentation state. Export destinations are chosen by the user.

A Procedure can also be exported as a new Markdown document. Lyreline shows an Export Plan first, then creates a .md file and, when needed, a sibling assets folder containing the current rendered Step visuals. Supported Procedure metadata is stored in Lyreline-owned YAML front matter so it can be restored on a later Markdown import.

Markdown export does not modify the original imported Markdown and does not silently replace existing output. See Markdown Import and Round Trip for the complete workflow.

Publishing records a local version snapshot. Editing a later draft does not overwrite the prior published version.

Archive and recovery

PDF and PNG files are publication outputs, not complete editable backups. Use a Lyreline archive when you need restorable working data. See Data Safety before deleting or transferring important work.