First Look at SIDEKICK

After experiencing a significant delay in late 2014, the folks over at SIDEKICK have launched a new website along with Composer. Composer is a tool that allows you to create visual, guided, walkthroughs. When SIDEKICK Co-founder, Ben Fox, showed off the initial demo last year, I described it as the Camtasia of WordPress.

SIDEKICK has a couple different plans available depending upon how many walkthroughs you want to publish. The free account allows for three published walkthroughs, 50 monthly plays or views, 1 active website, and support for WordPress multi-site.

The walkthrough creation interface is similar to Camtasia in that it has a timeline with various steps that can be added. To supply audio, you need to upload a pre-recorded mp3 file for each step. While not as easy as recording the audio within the plugin, it’s easier to fix mishaps without having to redo the entire walkthrough.

It’s Clearly The First Version

While testing SIDEKICK, I encountered several things that need to be addressed in future versions. During the initial setup, there is a box that explains how to build your own walkthrough with a link to get Composer. This leads me to believe that it’s a separate product or plugin when in reality, it’s not. Composer is part of SIDEKICK out of the box. Update SIDEKICK has already released an update that fixes the copy.

I encountered a few links which point to a 404 page, like their Terms of Use. With so many steps in the setup process, it would be nice if SIDEKICK had a walkthrough of its own, to guide users on how to configure it. Despite these minor setbacks, they don’t detract from its usefulness. Fox says, the team is already aware of the issues and over the next few weeks, will release several updates.

It took awhile, but once I understood how it works, I found creating walkthroughs a fairly easy process. With version one out the door, it will be interesting to see how it’s adopted by theme and plugin developers, considering a number of them already use admin pointers that are built into WordPress. However, there’s a distinct difference between a simple pointer and walking people through a task.