Re: another word for steps

["Richard G. Combs" <richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com>]

Sean Hower offered an example of what he meant by steps:

> GETTING TO THE RESTARAUNT
> Step 1. Picking a Place
> 1.
> 2.

In the words of JoAnn Hackos, a procedure is "a sequence of discrete actions
people take on the way to accomplishing a goal" and a step is "a small-scale
action that is part of the procedure." Discrete is, of course, relative to
the level of detail that's appropriate for the audience. For instance,
depending on the computer knowledge of the audience, a procedure might start
with:

Step 1. Using the mouse, move the pointer to the word File on the menu bar.

Or, it might begin with:

Step 1. Open the XYZ file.

But, whatever level of granularity is appropriate, the _smallest discrete
entity_ should be a step. _Occasionally_, one of these might have
"substeps." But if every "step" consists of a sequence of discrete actions,
then _those_ are the true steps, and what you call a "step" is actually a
"task."

IMO, of course. ;-)

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------







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