You open a support ticket, recognize the problem, and realize it belongs in your help center. You capture the screen, write a few lines, and move on. Three weeks later someone writes another entry about the same feature and words it completely differently. Now your FAQ has two answers that look like they came from two companies.
The fix is a shared vocabulary. If everyone writing FAQ entries from a live app uses the same four terms the same way, the entries line up no matter who captured them. Here are the terms, each with a one-line definition and the moment it actually matters.
Question
Question: the exact thing the reader is trying to do or find out, phrased in their words, not yours.
This is the title of the entry and the first thing you write. It matters because readers scan. "How do I change the email on my account?" gets found; "Account email management" does not. Write the question the way a frustrated person types it into search, lowercase and all. If you catch yourself using a feature name the reader would not know, you have written a label, not a question.
Trigger
Trigger: the action or condition that puts the reader in this situation, the reason they are reading the entry at all.
The trigger is what you write right after the question, before any steps. "You clicked Export and nothing downloaded." "Your invoice shows last month's address." It matters because the same screen can be reached for different reasons, and the reader needs to confirm they are in the right place before they follow your instructions. An entry that skips the trigger forces the reader to read the whole thing to find out whether it even applies to them. Name the trigger and they self-select in one line.
Screen state
Screen state: the specific view, with its specific data, that the reader should be looking at while they follow the answer.
This is where capture comes in, and it is the term most authors get loose about. "Go to Settings" is not a screen state. A screenshot of the Settings page with the Billing tab open, the right section in view, and a numbered pin on the field that matters, that is a screen state. It matters because written directions drift out of date and readers skim them; a captured still of the exact view removes the guesswork. When you drop numbered pins on a screenshot, you are turning a vague "look over there" into a precise screen state the reader can match against their own screen.
Capture the state, do not describe it. In Cobalt Capture you click Capture screen, the browser grabs the current frame, and you crop to the view that matters. Pins and arrows are baked into the exported image, so whoever reads the entry sees exactly what you marked. On a phone, where browsers cannot capture the screen, you take a normal screenshot and add it to the review.
Resolution
Resolution: the end state that tells the reader they are done, not just the last step they performed.
Most weak FAQ entries stop at the last action: "Click Save." The resolution is what the reader should see after Save: "Your new email shows at the top of the account page, and a confirmation is sent to the old address." It matters because an action without a result leaves the reader unsure whether it worked. The resolution is also the thing you capture last: a screenshot of the finished state, pinned to the part that confirms success.
How the four terms fit one entry
Every entry runs in the same order: the question as the title, the trigger so the reader knows it applies, one or more screen states they follow, and the resolution that tells them they are done. Keep that shape and two authors writing on different days produce entries that read as one voice.
| Term | Where it goes | What breaks without it |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Title | Reader cannot find the entry |
| Trigger | First line | Reader cannot tell if it applies |
| Screen state | Captured stills | Reader guesses which view you mean |
| Resolution | Last line and last still | Reader does not know it worked |
Two habits undercut all four terms at once, and they are common enough to deserve their own read: see the two mistakes that make an entry useless on a reread. If you want the full capture-and-write sequence, the walkthrough on writing an FAQ entry with screenshots ties the vocabulary to the actual clicks. And when you are capturing several related answers in a row, three entries in one sitting shows how to keep the screen states consistent across them.
When to publish and what it costs
You can write and publish as many entries as you want without an account or a password; Cobalt asks for an email only when a review is ready to share. One thing to plan for: after seven days a review goes read-only for its owner, so editing and exports stop, though the shared link keeps working. If your FAQ entries need to stay editable, Pro is $5 a month and reopens read-only reviews instantly. The pricing page spells out the whole rule.
Pick your four terms, agree on them with anyone else who writes entries, and start your next entry with the question line. The vocabulary does the consistency work so you do not have to edit it in later.