Format a tutorial with screenshots in LaTeX

Question

I want to format a step-by-step tutorial in LaTeX in a way that each step shows one screenshot and a small piece of text for that step. I could think of a formatting where in each step the screenshot is positioned on the left and the text is on the right. However, if I use \includegraphics the image is dynamically positioned in the document.

How can I realize such formatting?

Answer 1

It's by no means necessary to place an \includegraphics command inside a figure environment.

If the text doesn't overflow much the figure's height, you can use a simple method:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newenvironment{explanation}[2][]
  {\begin{flushleft}
   \adjustbox{center=6cm,valign=t}{\includegraphics[width=5cm,#1]{#2}}%
   \begin{minipage}[t]{\dimexpr\textwidth-6cm\relax}}
  {\end{minipage}\end{flushleft}}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[2]

\begin{explanation}{screenshot1}
This is the text that accompanies the first screen shot
and explains it.
\end{explanation}

\lipsum[2]
\end{document}

Note: the demo option for graphicx is just to allow avoiding having real figure files. Here I've provided 6cm space for the screen shot, which is typeset as 5cm wide, so to give it some room. Variations are possible, see the documentation of adjustbox.

In case a caption is needed, one can use the caption or captionof packages and use something like

\newenvironment{explanation}[2][]
  {\noindent\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}\vspace{\topsep}
   \adjustbox{center=6cm,valign=t}{\includegraphics[width=5cm,#1]{#2}}%
   \begin{minipage}[t]{\dimexpr\textwidth-6cm\relax}}
  {\end{minipage}
   \par
   \if\relax\detokenize\expandafter{\expcaptiontext}\relax\else
     \captionof{figure}{\expcaptiontext}
   \fi
   \gdef\expcaptiontext{}%
   \vspace{\topsep}
   \end{minipage}}
\newcommand{\expcaption}[1]{\gdef\expcaptiontext{#1}}

with

\begin{explanation}{screenshot1}
This is the text that accompanies the first screen shot
and explains it.

\expcaption{This is the caption}
\end{explanation}

If the text overflows the screen shot by several lines, then the wrapfig package should be taken into consideration.

Answer 2

As suggested by @egreg, here is an example with wrapfigure:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{wrapfig}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{7cm}
\includegraphics[width=6cm]{<image file>}
\end{wrapfigure}

\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

The paragraph that will be wrapped around the figure is placed after the figure itself.

It is worth to take a look at the documentation of the wrapfig package, as it behaves a bit differently than regular floats. Just a short quote about the required argument for the placement of the figure on the page:

Parameter #2 (required) is the figure placement code, but the valid codes are different from regular figures. They come in pairs: an uppercase version which allows the figure to float, and a lowercase version that puts the figure “exactly here”.

r R – the right side of the text

l L – the left side of the text

i I – the inside edge–near the binding (if [twoside] document)

o O – the outside edge–far from the binding