Containers for steps and other elements!?

["France Baril" <France.Baril@ixiasoft.com>]

Title: Containers for steps and other elements!?

Hi, as my project evolve I seem to get into very specific issues.

I'm not sure we're at this level of details yet, but here it is…

I have mutliple tasks that use many of the same steps. Somehow, it would be very useful to be able to reuse not an element, but a group of elements. I'm thinking of containers for elements. Here is an example (note this is a quick unrealistic translation of French content) where I am documenting an application in which there are many ways of doing the same thing, so depending on where you start from and what your goal is as a user, the first steps differ.

Note: The hypothesis is that I am not using the standard dita dtd in which a step may contain substeps and not steps; my step elements may contain other "steps/step" levels.

Task1: how to share a news monitoring folder with other users
...
Steps
Step: Click Modify Folder
… Would like container (id=SubSetSharingOptions)
Step: In section Sharing, select Yes.
Step: In section User groups, check the groups to which you want to grant access.
… End container
Step: Click OK 

Task2: how to configure email alerts when new news documents are added to the news monitoring folder.
...
Steps (id=ConfigureEmailAlerts)
Step: Click Modify Folder
… Would like container (id=SubSetAlertOptions)
Step (id=SelectRecieveAlert): In section Receive Email Alerts, select Yes.
Step (id=SelectDayFrequency): In section Day, select the days for which you want to receive alerts. For example, Monday to Friday.

Step (id=SelectHourFrequency): In section Hour, select the hours for which you want to receive alerts. For example. 9 to 5.

… End container
Step: Click OK

Task3 How to create a news monitoring folder.
…
Steps (id=CreateNewsFolder)
Step: Click Create News Monitoring Folder.
Step: In the Name field, enter a name for the folder.
Step: Set alert options which will allow you to receive email notification when new news documents are added to the folder:

        Steps
        Container (conref = SubSetAlertOptions)
Step: Set Sharing options to allow other users to view your folder's news articles:
        Steps
        Container (conref = SubSetSharingOptions)
Step: Click OK.

I did not find such a "container" mechanism in the actual DITA architecture. Is it there? If not, is it something we should consider or is it something one should add in its own customized specialization? Is there a no-no or a better solution?

I think it would be very useful for anyone documenting user interfaces. There is so much repetition because there are so many ways of doing one thing from the user perspective. What is really different in creating something and modifying something? Usually, it's only the steps that tell you how to get there.

Also, it is very interesting to document the actual user actions like "share your news folder", "receive alerts", "add search criteria to your news monitoring folder" rather then modify your news folder in which, by the way, you may set sharing options and configure alert notification and add search criteria to find relevant news documents.... It this last case, the instructions on how to get there are all the same. In this case, Click Modify Folder is quite straight forward, but in other cases in could be longer.

France Baril
Documentation architect/Architecte documentaire
I X I A S O F T

+1 514 279-4942
france.baril@ixiasoft.com
[   www.ixiasoft.com   ]