Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please fill out the contact form below and we will reply as soon as possible.

  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Web Experiences
  • Use Cases

Create a Step-by-Step Guide using Tooltips

Learn some best practices to build flows with tooltips

Written by Sofia Domingues

Updated at May 14th, 2025

Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please fill out the contact form below and we will reply as soon as possible.

  • Web Experiences
    Building Web Experiences Targeting Studio Customization & Styling Use Cases Troubleshooting FAQ
+ More

Have a new feature to show your users? Or an existing feature that users are struggling to learn? A step-by-step walkthrough can help get the user through that initial point of friction and enable them to further learn and adopt a feature. With this type of flow you should:

  • Clearly articulate the feature and the value to the user
  • Teach the major functionality, nuance will be learned later with more use
  • Build in success/completion acknowledgment

This example assumes you have mastered some basics covered in earlier examples, especially the Welcome Flow and Product Tour examples.

Build Guide

Step 1: Attach the first Tooltip to highlight the feature

You can automatically place a Tooltip using our “Reposition Tooltip” feature in the Builder. 

Alternatively, you can manually target the element using its CSS selector as well! 

OPTIONAL: Manually attach the Tooltip using its CSS selector

In some cases, the Builder will have some trouble detecting the target element automatically, so you'll need to attach it manually! 

For example, the “Upload file” icon we have is built with this selector: 

In this case, we can use this selector to put in the Builder: [data-button-id="1\.Democues_Core\.Home\.actionButton1"] 

You can find more information on how Appcues treats CSS selectors in this guide: CSS Selectors

 

Once you've got your CSS selector, you can select the Manual placement option in the sidebar and input your selector:

You can refine your selection further under the ADD ADDITIONAL FILTERS fields: 

You can use the By order filter if you have multiple objects with the same CSS header or a By text filter if the language on the target element is always the same. 

Step 2: Place the second Tooltip on a dynamic element (if any) 

In this example of our step-by-step, the second step falls on an element that isn't visible on the page until the user has interacted with a page. 

In this case, we can place the Tooltip on a dynamic element by holding the SHIFT button once it's time to add a new Tooltip:

OPTIONAL: Adjust the positioning of the Tooltip

You may want to adjust where the Tooltip specifically appears, and you can do so by adjusting the settings for the Alignment and Fine tune position fields.

Step 3: Attach the next Tooltips in your sequence

Following our methods above, it should now be easy for you to complete the flow! We strongly recommend limiting the flow to 3-5 steps to not overwhelm the user. 

Pro Tip: end your Tooltip workflow with an action-driven Tooltip on the button that creates or saves what the user has just done.

 

Step 4: Target and publish your flow! 

The use cases for this type of flow span across many user types at many lifecycle stages. For the flow being built in this example, we're targeting customers who have Events but have not created a Goal. Here's what that looks like:

Once you're ready, go ahead and publish your flow! 

Was this article helpful?

Yes
No
Give feedback about this article

Related Articles

  • Welcome your Users with Appcues
  • Welcome your Users with Personalized Paths
  • Get Feedback from your Users with a Flow
  • Create a Product Tour with Appcues
  • Nudge your Users to Upgrade using an Appcues Flow
DON'T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT

Start building with Appcues for free

Try before you buy
No credit card required
Support included
Start building for freeBook a demo
or take an interactive tour
Appcues logo

Product

In-app messaging
Email
Push notifications
Workflows
Data
How it works
Pricing
What's new

Use cases

Onboarding
Free-trial conversion
Feature adoption
Feedback
Support

Integrations

Why connect
All integrations
All workflows

Company

About
Careers
HIRING
Why Appcues
Teams
Customers

Support

Request a demo
Start free trial
Developer Docs
Help Center
Customer Success
Contact

Resources

Product Adoption Academy
Courses
Workshops
Templates
Examples
Made with Appcues
The Appcues Blog
PLG Collective
Product-led Experience Report
The Product Experience Playbook
The Product-Led Growth Flywheel
© 2025 Appcues. All rights reserved.
SecurityTerms of ServiceWebsite Terms of UsePrivacy PolicyCookie Preferences
Expand