By the end of this you'll have a finished carousel on your phone, a caption written, and a reminder booked for the day it goes out.
One thing worth knowing before you start, because it catches people out: The Social Trainer doesn't post for you. It gets you to a finished file and a caption, then reminds you when it's time. The last tap is always yours, in whichever app you're posting to. Nothing goes live without you.
This walkthrough uses a feed post and posts it to Instagram, because that's where most people start. Everything up to the last step is identical whatever you're posting to — Facebook, LinkedIn, X and TikTok are all in the platform picker. Reels work the same way up to the editor, then diverge; see Your first Reel.
Find a template
Open Content Hub from the sidebar. Everything TST has made lives here.
The tabs across the top split the library by what you're making — REELS, POSTS, STORIES, MEMES, AUTHORITY. Click POSTS.
Underneath, four dropdowns narrow it down:
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pillar | The job the post is doing — building authority, selling, connecting |
| Topic | What it's about |
| Season | Time of year it suits |
| Audience | Who you're talking to |
Two things on the cards are worth learning now:
- The yellow EDITOR badge means the template opens in one of our editors. Cards without
it are still yours to use, they just don't have an editable version.
- The heart in the corner saves it to your favorites so you can find it again.
In a hurry? Picked for you at the top right pulls templates matched to the profile you set up during onboarding.
Check it's the right one
Click any card and it opens a preview.
Don't skip this bit. Underneath the slides there are three things that decide whether the template is worth your time:
- About this template — what it's for and when to use it
- Caption — a written example you can lift or rewrite
- How to use it — the useful one. It lists what to prepare (usually a photo you'll
need), what to change on each slide, and how to adapt it to your niche
Read How to use it before you open the editor. If it asks for a photo you don't have, that's much better to discover now.
Open it in the editor
Hit Open in Image Editor.
That creates a project on your account, and you'll find it again under My Projects. One thing to know: it does not save on its own. Hit Save — or Ctrl/⌘ S — before you close the tab. If you try to leave with unsaved changes, the editor stops you and asks.
The editor opens in Basic mode, which is the one you want today. The panel on the right says Fill Your Content, and it lists the parts of this slide you're meant to change — nothing else. Everything that makes the design work is left alone.
There's a Basic / Advanced toggle at the top, and it's worth knowing what's behind it. Basic shows only the slots you're meant to fill. Advanced opens the full canvas — move anything anywhere, resize it, restyle it, add your own text and shapes, reorder layers, change fonts and colors by hand.
You don't need it for a first post, and Basic is deliberately harder to break. But if a template is nearly right and one thing is in the wrong place, Advanced is where you fix it rather than giving up on the template. See How the Image Editor works.
Swap the photo
The first slot is usually Background photo. Click it to replace it.
The padlock beside each slot is yours to use: click it to lock that slot, which grays it out so you can't change it by accident. Useful once the headline is exactly right and you're still working on the rest.
Change the words
Text slots are plain boxes. Type over what's there.
Each one has a size stepper beside it. Use it if your words run longer than the original — a name or an offer that's twice as long as the placeholder will need a nudge down.
Keep the shape of the original copy. These templates are built around a rhythm — a short hook, a longer middle, a punchy end. Swapping a three-word headline for a fifteen-word one is what makes a good template stop looking good.
Work through the slides
This template is five slides. Move between them with the arrows at the top of the panel — it reads Cover · 1 of 5 — or the thumbnails along the bottom.
Every slide has its own slots. Work left to right and fill them all.
Put your brand on it
Open the Brand Kit tab in the rail on the right to apply your colors, fonts and logo across every slide at once.
If you haven't set one up yet, it's in Settings → Brand Kit. Worth ten minutes — once it's there, every project you ever start can be brought in line with one click.
Brand Kit is a Pro feature. On the free plan the tab is there but asks you to upgrade.
Write the caption
Open the Caption tab in the rail on the right.
The template comes with an example caption already written for it. Use it as-is, or hit Generate with AI to have it rewritten in your voice, using the profile and tone you set in Settings → AI Settings.
You don't have to finish it here — the caption comes with you to the scheduling step, where you can still edit it. But it's easier to write while the slides are in front of you.
Whatever you end up with, put your call to action in the first sentence and the last. Most people read the first line and the last line and nothing in between.
Export it
Hit Export.
You get two choices:
- Current Slide — just the one you're looking at
- All Slides (5) — the whole carousel, in order
For a carousel you want All Slides.
Get it onto your phone
As soon as the export finishes, a Download to Phone dialog appears with a QR code.
Scan it with your phone camera and the files download straight to it — no cable, no emailing things to yourself, no AirDrop. This is the fastest way to get from "finished on my laptop" to "ready to post on my phone", and it's the step most people miss.
The link doesn't expire, so you don't have to scan it right away. If you lose it, the clock icon next to Export brings back the QR code for any export you've made.
The dialog also says whether the post is on the calendar yet, with a link straight to scheduling if it isn't.
Book it in
Hit Schedule.
Three things to set:
- When — Next available picks the next slot from the posting times in your
settings, which is usually the right answer. Pick a date and time if you have something specific in mind.
- Platform — Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X or TikTok. This decides which reminder
you get; the file is the same either way.
- Caption — the one you wrote, still editable. Personalize rewrites it in your
voice if you skipped that earlier.
Down the left it shows your latest export, so you can see exactly which file is going to arrive with the reminder.
Then hit Schedule. It lands on Content Calendar in the sidebar, where you can see the week and drag things around.
Read the line at the top of that dialog: "We'll email you the caption and the file before it's due." That is the whole mechanic. Scheduling is a reminder, not a publisher — nothing appears on your Instagram until you post it yourself. If you were expecting it to go out automatically, this is the step where that assumption breaks.
Post it
If you scanned the QR code, the files are already on your phone. Otherwise the reminder email brings them to you — caption and files together — so open that on your phone instead.
Then, in Instagram: + → Post → select all five images in order → paste the caption → share.
That's one post done. The second one takes about three minutes, because you already know where everything is.
Related Articles
Your first Reel
Pick a reel template, swap in your own clips or let Autofill do it, export, get the video onto your phone and schedule the reminder — every step, with screenshots.
Start here
How the Image Editor works
Both modes, the canvas, the floating toolbar, Layers, the inspector, slides, style variants, saving, exporting and every keyboard shortcut.
The Image Editor
Getting files onto your phone
Every way a finished post or reel gets from the editor to your phone — the QR code, the Schedule dialog, the reminder email, and your export history — plus what's on the download page and how to send photos the other way.
Get it posted
Does it post for me?
No. What scheduling actually does — the calendar entry, the reminder email, what's in it, when it arrives, and the settings that control it.
Get it posted
Auto Populate: filling the calendar in bulk
Fill every empty day in a period with suggested content from the Content Hub — the options, what the personalization survey changes, why suggestions stay silent until you touch them, and how to turn one into a real post.
Get it posted
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