RE: Step structure (was RE: a question about verb tense/is or was ?)

[Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>]

I'll raise that to 10 cents!

Putting the condition before the action is a smart idea. People tend to DO
the action first, then read the rest of the sentence. Thus, I'd write:

To erase your hard drive, click Mumble...


instead of:

Click Mumble to erase your hard drive.

Imagine the screams of anguish in the first case from users who clicked
first and read the condition afterwards!

Marguerite

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems 
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.