DC25006 Scribe and other SOP Documentation Tools V01 031225

Important to visualise the End User using a Smartphone or Tablet to scan a QR Code on a computer  menu or screen or office or shop floor machine or anything where a set of workflow instructions are required by the user. Scribe is one of the most popular but there are many others. They often start out “free” but move to “paid” for more functionality or volume usage. With AI the trend is towards AI Text or AI Image or AI Voice activation to trigger the workflow documentation presentation process which in the future will be delivered back through the AI interface. So AI will control everything. 

📘 What is Scribe and how it works

Scribe is a tool designed to make documentation and process-guides effortless — especially when the processes are digital (software, web, desktop). 

• The core idea: instead of manually screenshotting, writing text, formatting — you “record” yourself doing the workflow, and Scribe automatically generates a step-by-step guide (called a “Scribe”) for you. It captures your on-screen actions (clicks, page navigation, typing, etc.), takes annotated screenshots, and translates them into a user-friendly guide. 

• Once captured, the guide can be edited: you can refine or remove steps, add or change text, annotate screenshots, sometimes redact sensitive details (depending on plan), and tailor the how-to to your needs. 

• The generated guides are shareable. You can share a link, embed the guide (in a wiki, knowledge base, help-centre, internal docs), or export it using formats such as HTML, Markdown, etc. 

• For teams or organisations, Scribe helps standardize documentation: whether for onboarding, internal standard operating procedures (SOPs), client hand-offs, or training. Because the process is automated, even non-technical staff can create usable documentation. 

Because of this automation + ease, Scribe is often described as a way to dramatically reduce the friction around documenting workflows — from something that might take hours manually to something you generate in minutes by simply walking through the steps. 

That said: some features (e.g. capturing desktop apps rather than just browser workflows, redacting sensitive info, exporting, advanced editing) may require a paid plan rather than the free tier. 

🔧 Tools similar to Scribe (automatic guides, interactive or static documentation)

If you like the idea of Scribe, but want different features — more flexibility, extra output formats (video, interactive demos), or different price points — there are several tools doing roughly the same thing, sometimes with different tradeoffs.

Tango

Tango works in the same vein as Scribe: you capture browser (and in some cases desktop) workflows, and it outputs step-by-step guides with screenshots + text. 

• It adds visual hints (click-action boxes) to show where clicks happen — useful for clarity in guides. 

• Good for onboarding, internal SOPs, documentation of processes — especially if you want quick, straightforward guides. 

• Compared to Scribe: Many core functions are similar. The difference may come down to which user interface you prefer, what export/share options they offer, and which fits better in your workflow. 

Floik

Floik straddles a line between step-by-step guides and multimedia/tutorial creation. Rather than just static guides, it lets you turn workflows into videos or interactive demos, besides traditional guides. 

• That makes it especially good when you want customer-facing tutorials, product walkthroughs, onboarding demos — not just internal SOPs. 

• Because of the different output types, Floik can cater to a broader set of documentation needs: from internal documentation to marketing or training materials. 

Other auto-capture / doc-generator tools

There are a range of other tools in the same space — tools that help you capture screens, record workflows, and build documentation — each with different emphasis (simplicity, automation, output formats, cost). 

These include browser-based capture tools, desktop recorders, or platforms that let you export tutorials, embed them, or integrate them into a knowledge base or help-desk. 

🆓 Manual, free, open-source or more traditional documentation approaches

If your priorities are cost-efficiency, control over storage, flexibility, or long-term maintainability — even if that means more manual work — there are solid alternatives to automated tools like Scribe.

ShareX

ShareX is a free, open-source screenshot and screen-recording tool (Windows) that’s been around for years. 

• It lets you capture the screen (full screen, window, region), record video or GIF screencasts, annotate, blur sensitive data, highlight areas, etc. 

• While ShareX doesn’t automatically build step-by-step guides with text + screenshots, it gives you the raw materials (screenshots, recordings) that you can then assemble manually into guides using a document editor or wiki. 

• This is ideal when you value full control, need to document non-standard workflows, or cannot rely on automation (e.g. custom apps, legacy software).

OBS Studio

OBS Studio is a free, open-source cross-platform tool for screen recording and live streaming (Windows, macOS, Linux). 

• You can use OBS to record a full workflow (screen + optional audio), then manually edit and annotate the video, or pair it with written instructions. Good for tutorial videos rather than static guides. 

• Useful if your audience prefers video tutorials (e.g. training videos) or you need to show dynamic, interactive workflows (animations, mouse movement, etc.).

BookStack (self-hosted wiki / knowledge base)

BookStack is an open-source, self-hosted wiki / documentation system that lets you organise content hierarchically (Books → Chapters → Pages). 

• It provides a simple WYSIWYG editor, built-in search, linkage between pages, and the ability to structure documentation in a book-like fashion — ideal for internal manuals, knowledge base, or reference docs. 

• Because it’s self-hosted and free, you maintain full control of your data, privacy, and structure. This is often attractive for teams wary of cloud-based SaaS or needing compliance / internal privacy. 

HelpNDoc

HelpNDoc is a documentation and help-authoring tool that lets you write or import content, and export to a wide variety of formats: HTML websites, PDF, Word documents, eBooks (ePub / Kindle), Qt help files, CHM help, etc. 

• It’s versatile if you need to create manuals, help files, user documentation, or reference guides (not necessarily process walkthroughs). It supports structured documentation, styling, table of contents, multimedia inclusion, and more. 

• Its “Personal Edition” is free for non-commercial use — making it a good option for hobby projects, internal documentation, or evaluation. 

• Because it doesn’t rely on recording a workflow, it works well for purely written/documentation-heavy tasks — API docs, user manuals, long reference materials, and more traditional documentation needs. 

🎯 When to choose which — matching your needs to the right approach

Choosing between these tools depends a lot on what kind of documentation you need, how automated you want the process to be, and how you plan to maintain/share the docs. Here’s a rough guide:

• You want quick, visual, step-by-step guides from actual workflows: Use Scribe (or Tango, or Floik). These are ideal for onboarding, internal SOPs, client-facing tutorials, or documenting software usage.

• You want more flexibility (video, interactive demos), maybe customer-facing: Floik — because it supports video and interactive demos — is a strong choice.

• You want total control, self-hosting, or open-source solution for text/manual-heavy documentation: BookStack, HelpNDoc, or manually built docs using ShareX/OBS + a writing tool.

• You prefer video-based tutorials over static guides (e.g. for training or demos): OBS Studio (for screen recording) or manual recording + doc-creation workflow.

• You need structured help files, manuals, or docs that can be exported as eBook, PDF, HTML etc.: HelpNDoc excels here, especially for technical documentation or user manuals rather than ephemeral workflows.

Good question. The short answer is: some documentation tools could be — or are becoming — partially operable through AI-powered or chat-style interfaces. But it depends a lot on the tool and how it’s been integrated. Below is a breakdown of when that works, what’s possible today, and some of the constraints.

🤖 What “operated via AI chat interface” would mean in this context

By “AI chat interface,” I mean something like a chatbot or virtual assistant: you type or speak a command or question, and the system responds — for example: “Generate a guide for X workflow,” “Show me the SOP for process Y,” “Update step 3 because we changed the UI,” or “Search for all docs about Billing.”

If a documentation tool supports this kind of conversational control — creation, editing, retrieval — it can make documenting and managing workflows much more flexible, interactive, and accessible.

✅ Tools that could or claim to support AI-style or conversational/document-generation features

Scribe

• Scribe describes itself as “AI-powered process documentation software” that “helps you write, edit and share how-to guides in seconds.” 

• That suggests some AI automation under the hood — e.g. summarising captured workflows, generating titles/descriptions, maybe simplifying editing. 

• In practice, however: the typical workflow still seems to involve manually capturing an on-screen workflow (via extension / desktop capture), then editing or enhancing the auto-generated guide. So it’s not purely a “chat interface → full guide generated” tool.

Tango

• Tango — a prominent alternative to Scribe — also supports automatic workflow capture + guide generation. 

• While Tango marketing mentions “AI-driven workflow insights,” this seems more about analytics / guide generation rather than a user-facing chat interface. 

• So like Scribe: automation helps, but workflow capture + guide creation remains anchored to manual or semi-automated processes rather than full conversational automation.

Fluency (and similar AI-powered documentation tools)

• Fluency is described as “AI-powered process documentation,” with features like context-aware process capture, documentation automation, compliance and redaction, and process mapping. 

• In theory, such advanced AI-powered documentation platforms could integrate more automated or intelligent interfaces — though I don’t see public evidence that Fluency offers a “chat your documentation into existence” interface.

⚠️ Why fully chat-based operation is still rare / limited

• Most tools that call themselves “AI documentation” tools still rely on capturing actual workflows — i.e. you perform the steps, or record them. The AI helps convert that into guides (text + images), but you don’t just describe a process in words and get a perfect guide.

• The “AI” often means automation of repetitive tasks — text generation, redaction, formatting — not necessarily conversational control.

• For a chat-based interface to truly work, the tool needs to understand a textual description of a process, infer steps, generate screenshots or mockups, annotate them — that’s very hard, especially across arbitrary applications or UIs.

• Additionally, many tools are built around screen-capture + step-by-step screenshot + user editing — the AI helps but doesn’t replace your interaction with the UI.

🧠 Emerging / Related Tech: AI scribes, ambient documentation & conversational agents

Beyond workflow-to-guide tools, there is a growing class of “AI-scribe / ambient documentation” tools that try to capture information more passively, sometimes with speech-to-text or AI summarization. These are not the same as Scribe-type “step guide” tools — but they illustrate how conversational / AI interfaces are used for documentation more broadly.

• In contexts like healthcare, “ambient scribing” tools listen to conversations (clinician-patient) and transcribe & summarise them into structured notes (often for EHRs). 

• Such tools rely on AI (speech recognition, NLP, summarization) rather than manual screenshot-capturing. 

• In more generic office or business settings, AI-powered “documentation assistants” are being explored — tools that help teams automate document generation, maintenance, and knowledge-base management. 

Thus, while they’re not the same as “Scribe but operated via chat,” they show the direction: automation + AI + easier documentation flows — which could evolve towards more conversational interfaces.

🎯 My view: It’s possible — but not yet widespread

Yes — there are documentation / “scribe” tools that use AI under the hood. And yes — with some tools (or future versions) it might become possible to do a lot via chat or natural-language instructions. But for now, most of what exists in the “Scribe-style” space still expects you to record or perform a workflow, not just describe it to an AI and get a perfect guide.

If you’re especially interested in chat / AI-driven documentation generation (i.e. “you ask — it writes the guide”), I’d recommend looking into tools marketed as “AI documentation assistant,” or even using a custom workflow combining a large language model (LLM) and manual screenshot-capture.

If you like — I can try to find 2–4 tools available right now that explicitly offer a chatbot / conversational-style interface for documentation / guide generation — i.e. closest to what you imagine by “operate through AI chat.”

DC25005 IBM ATM V01 260825

 

Cleaver did not know what a computer was when he joined IBM.

Anthony Cleaver was a systems engineer at IBM when Lloyds Bank asked for help designing an automatic cash dispenser. “They said, ‘Look, our problem is this. Every Friday, there are a lot of people who are paid weekly, they flood into the bank. We literally take on extra cashiers just for Friday lunchtime ... We want a machine that can deal with that problem’,” he said.

Putting together a small team, he undertook a study of Lloyds’ requirements. “First of all, you had to be able to recognise the customer, and it had to be a secure recognition. Then, you had to be able to access the customer’s account and see how much money they’d got. Then you had to be able to pay out a variable amount of money,” he said. “That sounds simple, but actually you need several different pieces of technology.”

Cleaver took his spec to IBM’s “specials department” but struggled to attract interest. Eventually a colleague in the US agreed to help. “And so we did a ‘skunkworks’. We actually built a sort of cardboard and string cash dispenser,” he recalled. He flew a team of Lloyds executives over to show them the machine “and they said, ‘Fine, if you can build that, we’ll buy it’.”

A snag arose when testing the prototype with £1 notes. “At that time there were exchange controls. You could only take £50 out of the country at a time. But we needed £10,000 in pound notes in the US,” he told the BBC. “I ended up having to go to the Bank of England to ask for special permission.”

On December 11, 1972, the world’s first variable-amount cash dispenser went live at Lloyds Bank in Brentwood, Essex, representing a breakthrough in retail banking. “While automated banking has grown more sophisticated over the years, the cashpoint’s core features have stayed the same, which shows how revolutionary this technology was in its day,” Cleaver said on its 40th anniversary.

His work on automated teller machines (ATMs) was not finished. Lloyds wanted them inside branches, accessible only during opening hours; he wanted them on external walls, observing that “in the long term, that’s where the opportunity was”.

An even greater challenge was selling the Americanowned IBM system to the Bank of England; such was the concern that the decision was referred to the cabinet.

Cleaver went on to enjoy a successful international career at IBM, eventually becoming UK chief executive and chairman at a time when it was possible to hold both posts. During his three decades with the company its UK turnover rose from £7 million to £4.5 billion. However, the cash dispenser remained his pride and joy. “You walk down the street now — there’ll be 30 or 40 in one street,” he said recently.

Anthony Brian Cleaver was born in Lambeth, south London, in 1938, the son of William Cleaver, a violinist who became a manager for Lunn Travel, and his pianist wife Dorothea (née Peeks), a primary school teacher. The family moved to Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, and he was educated at Berkhamsted School. During National Service with the Intelligence Corps he was sent to Cyprus to “listen to the Arabs”. The army urged him to remain in uniform but he left to read Greats at Trinity College, Oxford. In his fourth year he met Mary Cotter, who worked for Kodak, and they were married in 1962.

During his National Service, Cleaver was sent to Cyprus to ‘listen to the Arabs’

Cleaver was tempted to remain in academia, working on Egyptian hieroglyphics, but was directed towards computing by the Vocational Guidance office. “I really didn’t know what a computer was,” he said, but in 1962 he joined IBM. His first non-executive directorship was at General Accident whose other directors “were either aristocrats or Scots”. When the subject of buying an IBM system arose, he noted the conflict of interest and offered to step outside. The chairman refused, saying: “You’ve only been with us for a few months and the first time we come to something where you can be really useful you want to leave the room.”

Although he retired from IBM in 1994, Cleaver remained an influential City figure, describing himself as a “serial chairman”. His most high-- profile appointments were at Birkbeck College (1989-99), the Medical Research Council (1998-2006) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (1993-96). He was approached for the latter by Peter Gregson, permanent secretary at the Department of Trade and Industry. “I fell off my chair laughing,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Peter, come on ... I’m a classicist. What the hell do I know about nuclear physics?’ He said, ‘Well that’s not the issue. [The minister, Michael] Heseltine thinks it needs sorting … And he wants somebody who is used to dealing with a lot of technical people’.” His atomic interests were reignited a decade later as chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (2004-07).

Mary died in 1999 and in 2000 he married Jennie Graham, who survives him with two children from his first marriage, Paul and Caroline. He and Jennie often started their day with a swim in the Serpentine, cycling to Hyde Park with their two whippets. Another pleasure was their Bristol cars and on one occasion they shipped a Bristol Beaufighter 12,000 miles to join a month-long drive around New Zealand.

Cleaver’s great interest outside the boardroom was music. For his 21st birthday he had been taken to see Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Covent Garden. He was master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, vice-chairman of English National Opera during the “powerhouse period” of the 1980s and chairman of the Royal College of Music. However, he blamed his father’s pianola for his poor performance as a pianist. “I spent hours pedalling away and it seemed pointless when, however hard I had practised, I could never match the output of the music rolls at home,” he said in 2013. “So now I only play when the house is empty.”

Sir Anthony Cleaver, former chairman and chief executive of IBM UK, was born on April 10, 1938. He died on July 13, 2025, aged 87.