If you decide to change a specific configuration category this is usually being done in a workflow. Workflows are used to lead you through the steps necessary to accomplish a specific task. The steps are generally small to avoid an information “overflow”. At the end of the sequence the task has been accomplished and the changes are made permanent in the system.

As was stated above, you are not forced to do it this way. You could as well edit configuration files by hand but YaST can offer as much help as possible for this. Sometimes a workflow has multiple branches for “novice” and “expert” modes. The novice mode fills in the default values and tries to determine as much as possible automatically. The expert mode offers full control and allows to enter even unreasonable values.

By providing pre-configured workflows and configuration data, it is possible to automate almost arbitrary configuration tasks with YaST. From adding a user, to installing a completely configured SUSE Linux™ on specific hardware, nearly everything is possible.