##### 3.2.2.8 step

The <step> element represents an action that a user must follow to accomplish a task. Each step in a task must contain a command <cmd> element which describes the particular action the user must do to accomplish the overall task. Beginning with DITA 1.2, it is possible to place a <note> element before the command in order to notify the user of dangers or other important information about the step. The <step> element can also contain additional optional information about the step, such as substeps, a list of choices, or result information.

###### Contains

Doctype | Content model
ditabase, task, machineryTask | ( (note or hazardstatement) (any number) then cmd then (choices or choicetable or info or itemgroup or stepxmp or substeps or tutorialinfo) (any number) then (stepresult) (optional) )
learningContent | ( (note or lcInstructornote) (any number) then cmd then (choices or choicetable or info or itemgroup or stepxmp or substeps or tutorialinfo) (any number) then (stepresult) (optional) )

###### Contained by

Doctype | Content model
ditabase, task (strict), task (general), machineryTask, learningContent | steps, steps-unordered

###### Inheritance

- topic/li task/step

###### Example

    <task id="sqlj">
    <title>Creating an SQLJ file</title>
    <taskbody>
    <context>Once you have set up SQLJ, you need to create a new SQLJ file.
    </context>
    <steps>
    <step>
     <cmd>Select <menucascade><uicontrol>File</uicontrol><uicontrol>New</uicontrol></menucascade>.</cmd>
     <info>New files are created with default values based on a standard template.</info>
    </step>
    </steps>
    </taskbody>
    </task>

###### Attributes

Name | Description | Data Type | Default Value | Required?
importance | Describes whether the current step or substep is optional or required. Output processors may (but need not) highlight steps that are optional or required. | optional | required | -dita-use-​conref-​target | #IMPLIED | No
props | Root attribute from which new metadata attributes can be specialized. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
base | A generic attribute that has no specific purpose. It is intended to act as a base for specialized attributes that have a simple value syntax like the conditional processing attributes (one or more alphanumeric values separated by whitespace), but is not itself a filtering or flagging attribute. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
platform | Indicates operating system and hardware. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
product | Contains the name of the product to which the element applies. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
audience | Indicates the intended audience for the element. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
otherprops | This attribute can be used for any other properties that might be needed to describe an audience, or to provide selection criteria for the element. Alternatively, the props attribute may be specialized to provide a new metadata attribute instead of using the general otherprops attribute. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
rev | Indicates a revision level of an element that identifies when the element was added or modified. It may be used to flag outputs when it matches a run-time parameter; it cannot be used for filtering. It is not sufficient to be used for version control. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
status | The modification status of the current element. | new | changed | deleted | unchanged | -dita-use-​conref-​target | #IMPLIED | No
id-atts attribute group (id, conref, conrefend, conaction, conkeyref) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.4 id-atts attribute group |  |  |
localization-atts attribute group (translate, xml:lang, dir) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.6 localization-atts attribute group. |  |  |
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.2 global-atts attribute group |  |  |
class, outputclass | Common attributes described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |  |  |

Previous Topic: 3.2.2.7 steps-unordered

Next Topic: 3.2.2.9 stepsection

Parent Topic: 3.2.2 Task elements

Sibling Topics:

3.2.2.1 task

3.2.2.2 taskbody

3.2.2.3 prereq

3.2.2.4 context

3.2.2.5 steps

3.2.2.6 steps-informal

3.2.2.7 steps-unordered

3.2.2.9 stepsection

3.2.2.10 cmd

3.2.2.11 info

3.2.2.12 substeps

3.2.2.13 substep

3.2.2.14 stepxmp

3.2.2.15 choicetable

3.2.2.16 chhead

3.2.2.17 choptionhd

3.2.2.18 chdeschd

3.2.2.19 chrow

3.2.2.20 choption

3.2.2.21 chdesc

3.2.2.22 choices

3.2.2.23 choice

3.2.2.24 stepresult

3.2.2.25 tutorialinfo

3.2.2.26 result

3.2.2.27 postreq