Multiple tasks and a step by step tutorial

Question

To my knowledge step-by-step tutorials should have the form of a ladder, where you describe how to get to a place step by step– accomplishing a single task at the end. Is it possible to accomplish many tasks while using the step-by-step approach? For example:

How to view a contact in Gmail?

1. Open Gmail
2. Click on Contacts
3. To view a single contact, click on the name
4. To view all the contacts, click the "contacts" link

Now, I am confused about step 3 and 4. Is it okay to list the two this way? I could list these two under a single step, but I have more than two items and this was just an example.

Answer 1

If you want your tasks to have multiple endpoints, then you need to have an EXPLICIT branching point.

1 Open Gmail
2 Click on Contacts
3 Do you want to view (a) a single contact or (b) all contacts.
4a To view a single contact, click on the name
4b To view all the contacts, click the "contacts" link.

Answer 2

Maybe it will be better to divide this multiple task for two instructions?

Viewing a single contact

1. Open Gmail.
2. Click on Contacts.
3. Click on the name.

Viewing all the contacts

1. Open Gmail.

2. Click on Contacts.

3. Click the "contacts" link.

If you can, I suggest to show these instructions using simple diagrams with flows which show how to do it step by step.

Answer 3

Reality is often more complex than our document structures can easily capture. Most of the solutions to this issue simply make the text structures more complex without making the meaning any more clear.

Practical clarity should rule over scrupulous correctness. There is no real risk of confusion of incorrect action in this case, so leaving it as it is is probably the best option.