##### 3.2.2.9 stepsection

The <stepsection> element provides expository text before a step element. Although the element is specialized from <li> and has the same content model as a list item, it is not intended to represent a step in a task.

DITA applications which render <stepsection> elements among the <step> elements must provide a way to number the steps without numbering the <stepsection> elements (although this does not need to be the only or default presentation).

###### Contains

Doctype | Content model
ditabase, task | ( text data or dl or parml or fig or syntaxdiagram or imagemap or image or lines or lq or note or hazardstatement or object or ol or p or pre or codeblock or msgblock or screen or simpletable or sl or table or ul or boolean or cite or keyword or apiname or option or parmname or cmdname or msgnum or varname or wintitle or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u or codeph or synph or filepath or msgph or systemoutput or userinput or menucascade or uicontrol or q or term or abbreviated-form or tm or xref or state or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or itemgroup or draft-comment or fn or indextermref or indexterm or required-cleanup) (any number)
machineryTask | ( text data or dl or fig or imagemap or image or lines or lq or note or hazardstatement or object or ol or p or pre or screen or simpletable or sl or table or ul or boolean or cite or keyword or wintitle or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u or menucascade or uicontrol or q or term or tm or xref or state or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or itemgroup or draft-comment or fn or indextermref or indexterm or required-cleanup) (any number)
learningContent | ( text data or dl or fig or imagemap or lcInteractionBase or lcTrueFalse or lcSingleSelect or lcMultipleSelect or lcSequencing or lcMatching or lcHotspot or lcOpenQuestion or image or lines or lq or note or lcInstructornote or object or ol or p or pre or simpletable or sl or table or ul or boolean or cite or keyword or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u or q or term or tm or xref or state or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or itemgroup or draft-comment or fn or indextermref or indexterm or required-cleanup) (any number)

###### Contained by

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

###### Inheritance

- topic/li task/stepsection

###### Example

    <steps>
      <step><cmd>Get out a bowl</cmd></step>
      <stepsection>The next two steps are very important!</stepsection>
      <step><cmd>Put on safety gloves</cmd></step>
      <step><cmd>Put on goggles</cmd></step>
      <step><cmd>Pour milk and cereal into the bowl</cmd></step>
    </steps>

The sample above would typically be rendered with "Get out a bowl" as step number one, "Put on safety gloves" as step number two, and "The next two steps are very important!" as an unnumbered item in between the first two items.

###### Attributes

Name | Description | Data Type | Default Value | Required?
univ-atts attribute group (includes select-atts, id-atts, and localization-atts groups) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.3 univ-atts attribute group |  |  |
class, outputclass | Common attributes described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |  |  |
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.2 global-atts attribute group |  |  |

Previous Topic: 3.2.2.8 step

Next Topic: 3.2.2.10 cmd

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

3.2.2.8 step

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