Protocol Steps

The core of a protocol is its steps. They build up the two sections "Main steps" which is a summary of the steps and "Instructions" that contains a comprehensive description.

Writing a protocol step

A new step can be added from either of the two step sections by clicking the "add" link.
It is important that you name the step since the "Main steps" section uses the name in the summary. If you don't name the step a subset of the step's description will be used instead which does not look as nice and won't link to the comprehensive description.
If the step is already defined as protocol of its own you should link to it rather than rewriting it. Do this by typing in a search query in the "sub protocol" selector and choose it from the the list.

Some examples of a situations where you would like to do this is if you have several protocols using the same buffer preparation, cloning or data analysis steps to mention a few.
If the step cannot be defined a sub protocol you write the step's contents in the description box. For information on text formatting or how to include pictures, tables etc. please refer to the Markdown help topic.

Organising steps

Protocol steps can be managed like any other resource type. Click the "edit" link in its section to bring up a list of all steps from where you can edit and move individual steps by using the icons to the right.