: Is "and" or "or" better in this sentence? When I was writing a manual, I wrote a sentence like example no.1 below. Is it natural to use an "or" like the bolded ones in the sentence? Or

@LarsenBagley300

Posted in: #TechnicalWriting

When I was writing a manual, I wrote a sentence like example no.1 below. Is it natural to use an "or" like the bolded ones in the sentence? Or it is better to use "and" like example no.2?

1


You can create or edit user profiles by filling in information in the blanks on the user-creating page or editing page.


2


You can create and edit user profiles by filling in information in the blanks on the user-creating page and editing page.



To clarify my question, I am asking how I can avoid the meaning of and that implies "doing something together" in my example sentence. My solution was to use "or" like example no.1, but that doesn't sound right to me, so I am asking for help.


Maybe I want my "and" to have the same function in this sentence: at this beautiful tourist spot, you can swim, play basketball, and have a sunbath, which clearly doesn't meaning doing them together, rather than this: an artistic swimmer can dance and swim in the water, which indicates doing swimming and dancing together.

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@Heady158

@Heady158

I think your issue is coming from using only one in both places.

Might I suggest:


You can create and edit user profiles by filling in information in the blanks on the user-creating page or editing page.


This implies more that creating and editing are things you can do in two separate places where you can do both. If you are meaning that you can do one thing in one place and one in the other, then you may want to try separating each idea like:


You can create user profiles by filling in information in the blanks on the user-creating page and edit user profiles on the editing page.

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