Installation
What SimplifyGuide needs, how to install it, what activation adds to your admin, and what happens when you remove it.
SimplifyGuide is a single plugin with no external service behind it. Guides are stored as WordPress posts, and screenshots and narration go into your Media Library.
Requirements
| Requirement | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| WordPress 6.3 or later | The minimum the plugin supports. |
| PHP 7.4 or later | The minimum the plugin supports. |
HTTPS (or localhost) | Browsers only allow screen capture on secure pages. Without it, steps are still recorded, but without screenshots. |
| Upload limit of 8 MB or more | Enough for screenshots and short narration. Below 8 MB, long narration may not upload; your host can raise upload_max_filesize. |
| A writable uploads folder | Screenshots are saved to your Media Library. |
| Chrome, Edge or another Chromium browser for screenshots | Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera) share the tab and crop screenshots to your site. Firefox and Safari can only share a whole window, where nothing can be blurred, so they record steps without screenshots. |
Screenshots are saved as WebP by default. If the server cannot resize WebP images, JPEG is used instead. You can switch to JPEG or PNG in the setup wizard or under SimplifyGuide → Settings → General.
AI writing is optional and needs no setup to install. See AI providers.
You do not have to check any of this by hand: the first step of the setup wizard runs these checks on your site and tells you what, if anything, needs attention.
From the WordPress admin
Once SimplifyGuide is listed in the WordPress plugin directory:
- Go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for
SimplifyGuide. - Click Install Now, then Activate.
From a zip file
- Download the plugin zip.
- Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
- Choose the file, click Install Now, then Activate.
What activation does
Activation registers the guide post type, stores the default settings and then sends you to the setup wizard — once. It only redirects after a single, interactive activation by an administrator who has not been through setup yet. Bulk activations, network admin, AJAX, cron and WP-CLI never redirect.
If you skip the redirect or close the wizard, nothing breaks: the defaults are sensible and you can run it any time. See Setup wizard.
The Plugins screen also gets a Record a guide link next to Deactivate.
What it adds to the admin menu
A top-level SimplifyGuide menu, with:
| Item | What it is | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | The start screen: getting-started checklist and recent guides. Clicking the top-level menu opens it. | People who can record |
| Guides | The dashboard of every guide, with search, Show me, View and edit buttons. | Everyone with a guide to see |
| Record a Guide | Opens the recorder. See Recording. | People who can record |
| AI agents (marked Soon) | A preview of planned AI-agent (MCP) access. Not functional yet. | Administrators |
| Settings | General, Branding, AI writing, Voice narration and Advanced tabs. See Settings. | Administrators |
| Setup Wizard | The first-run setup, available to run again. | Administrators |
“People who can record” means users with the edit_posts capability — Authors
and above by default.
Users who cannot record see a Help Center menu instead, listing the published guides they are allowed to see. If there are no such guides, they see no menu at all.
When Toolbar button is on (the default), people who can record also get a Record guide button in the WordPress toolbar, on admin screens and on the front end.
Uninstalling
Deactivating SimplifyGuide keeps everything. Deleting it from the Plugins screen also keeps your guides by default — they are ordinary posts and media, and they will be there if you install the plugin again.
To remove everything on delete, turn on SimplifyGuide → Settings → Advanced → Delete data on uninstall before you delete the plugin. Then deleting the plugin removes:
- every guide, in any status,
- the screenshots and narration files attached to those guides,
- the plugin settings and the AI settings, including stored API keys.
Other media in your library is left alone.
Next
Go through the setup wizard, then record your first guide.