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Your first sentence is very true, but occasionally the purpose of a
window is to view data, in which case I would have an unnumbered
one-step instruction for how to open it and then a detailed description
of what the user is viewing.
However, 50 one-step procedures sounds excessive.
Kay
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The purpose of a procedure is to complete some task that fulfills a
goal. It seems weird to me to have 50 or so tasks on the order of
opening a window.
I suggest stepping back and considering whether these one-step
procedures really help users complete a meaningful goal. My guess is
they don't; they should be one step of many toward some higher-level
task. Users' real goals aren't that granular and artificial.
That said, my FM template has a dedicated pgf tag for a one-step
procedure, using a pair of angle brackets in place of a number, so the
procedure looks like this:
To immanetize the eschaton:
>> Blah blah blah
It's used rarely.
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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