Read Me First!: A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Second Edition

Chapter 6. Writing Tasks, Procedures, and Steps

The purpose of many technical documents is to explain how to use a product to accomplish specific tasks. In such documents, detailed instructions on how to accomplish tasks are often provided in the form of procedures and steps.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• “Understanding the Relationship Among Tasks, Procedures, and Steps” on page 115

• “Developing Task Information” on page 116

• “Writing Procedures” on page 123

• “Writing Steps” on page 127

Note

Note — This chapter mainly discusses how to write procedures for software documentation. Some information about writing hardware procedures also appears.

Understanding the Relationship Among Tasks, Procedures, and Steps

This chapter uses these task-related ...