SharePoint workflow

With Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, you can design workflows that add application logic to your site or application without having to write custom code. Using the Workflow Designer, you make rules that associate conditions and activities with items in Microsoft SharePoint lists and libraries, so that changes to items in lists or libraries trigger actions in the workflow.
For example, you can design workflows to automate business procedures in your enterprise — such as document review, approval, and archiving, among others. Or you can quickly create workflows just to take care of routine processes on your team site, such as sending notifications or creating tasks.

How does a workflow value steps?

You can think a step in a workflow simply as a page in the Designer workflow comprising a set of related conditions and actions. All conditions and actions on that page are evaluated and treated at the same time. Thus begins a workflow (either manually or automatically), and each step assesses the conditions that have been created, and then performs the actions you choose in the Workflow Designer. A step in a workflow can perform any number of actions, from sending an email to create, copy, move or delete an item from the list.
When you create a workflow with many steps, a key consideration is how the group of actions and conditions in each step of the workflow. The rules in one step is processed to completion before moving to the next step, so you want to group as much as the rules required to perform the specific action you want.
In addition, you design the workflow so that each step follows logically from the previous step. For example, if the workflow depends on a response from a participant in the workflow, the workflow must have the conditions and actions necessary to accommodate all possible answers.

SharePoint Workflow the Same as Windows Workflow?

The first important point to note is basic workflow SharePoint and Windows are separate entities. The basis for the workflow is Windows SharePoint workflow. In other words, the SharePoint workflow is at the top of the windows workflow and adds the flavor of human workflow.
The following graph reflects the broader definition of workflow in SharePoint. It requires the basic workflow of Windows. NET and then apply the workflow focused on the content in it. Focused content workflows are simply no windows workflow attached to lists, documents and personalized content.
You can view SharePoint workflows and workflow windows with a touch of human workflow and feel. The touch of human workflow and sensation occurs when the workflow is attached to a content type to the list of documents etc.