どんな風にする expression


I want to know the meaning of "山田さんはどんな風にしていましたか。" and understand the
grammatical construction. Does it means "How Yamada looked like ?" or "In what
way Yamada did it?" ?

For this example, the reply of that question about Yamada in my textbook is
"元気そうにしていました。"




First, understand the simplest form of the expression:

こんな風に

like this

When you are teaching Origami, you would say:

Fold it like this.

こんな風におります。

So, the expression by itself does not speak to health, appearance, folding, or
flavor. Quite simply, "like this". So it depends on what follows.

夏には、 _こんな風に_ 着飾ります。

In summer, you can dress it up _LIKE THIS_.

Now, let's make the statement above a question.

夏には、どんな風に着飾りますか？

How do you dress in Summer?

Notice how it became simply "How".

Now, let's get back to your original.

山田さんはどんな風にしていましたか。

This is a conjugation of する(do) in progressive tense.

So, in the end it's quite literally:

How was Yamada doing?

Since it does not specify what it is about, it could be anything.




In the case of example, it means "How Yamada looked like ?". (Without context,
"山田さんはどんな風にしていましたか。" can mean both of them.)

