Initial Draft, GnuCash Help

[Christian Stimming]

Ok, here are my next 2 cents in the help discussion. Also, I think two 
usage problems should be stated much more clearly and up front:

* How to enter multi-split transactions
* How to enter multi-currency transactions

These two questions regularly occur on gnucash-user, and when I started 
using gnucash, it took me quite some time to figure out how to do that 
myself. That can be a nuisance for new users, especially since the 
multi-split facilities are really easy to use -- but one has to discover 
them first. So maybe we should add a few sentences about how to do that 
as early as possible into the manual.

Chris Lyttle wrote:

>>>The second manual will use the outline developed by Carol Champagne to
>>>form a 'Concepts and Tutorial' simply called The GnuCash Users Guide.
> 
> Since I wrote this I came to pretty much the same conclusion, so in the
> help I've written I've called it 'GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide'


Good :-)


>>I wouldn't consider "Gnucash Tutorial" as a sub-point of "Fist time run 
>>dialog". How about:
>>
>>Getting Started
>>           First time run dialog
>>               New Account Hierarchy Setup
>>               Import QIF Files
>>           Gnucash Tutorial
>>           Tip of Day
> 
> My reason for doing it this way is because of the first time run dialog
> having 'Open the new user tutorial' listed as an item. I wanted to keep
> the Getting started section to be like a user would see the first time
> they run GnuCash.


On the other hand, the whole chapter "Getting Started" is just about 
that. Right, if the first time run dialog has such a button, it makes 
some sense to include the "Gnucash Tutorial" there. On the other hand 
that whole chapter is about that topic... either way is fine, I guess.


>>>                  Transaction Register
>>
>>What does "Transaction Register" mean? Maybe this subsection needs a 
>>more clear title.
> 
> Well, it hasn't really been named before, but I was trying for a
> description of the part of the Register window that you 'enter data
> into' which is why I went for transaction register. This section will in
> essence describe what the fields are and how to manipulate them. Other
> possible names;
> 	Account Ledger
> 	Transaction Ledger
> 
> I'm interested to hear your thoughts here.


Should it be a description of the part of the Account Register Window 
where transactions are shown and entered? Then I'd call it simply "List 
of Transactions".


>>These tools are not really top-level windows, 

 >

> Hmm, yes. I'm inclined to go with 'Tool Window' because this section is
> about using the main GnuCash windows. I like the idea of making them all
> in their own section.


Good.


>>>          Managing Your Accounts
>>>
>>I was just wondering whether we can have a more clear title 
>>of the whole section. Would "Setup your Accounts" or "Account Setup" 
>>state the purpose of this section more clearly? "Managing" is a very 
>>ambiguous and broad word...
> 
> Yeah, I can change this to 'Organizing your Accounts' which should be
> clearer.


Err -- "Organizing" is just a synonym for "Managing" with the same broad 
range of meanings.

My point was that the user asks himself "I want to do this-and-that. 
Where can I find it?". Our section titles should be exactly the 
"this-and-that" words. IMHO, users wouldn't say "I want to manage my 
accounts," they would rather say "I want to create new accounts," or "I 
want to change my account setup," or "I want to change the type of my 
account" or similar. I think it is not very natural to think of each of 
these actions under headline of "I want to *manage* (or: organize) my 
account". Instead, I think "Setup your accounts" or "Account Setup" is 
indeed a much more precise description of what is written about in that 
section. I would prefer one of these.

Surely the help structure is improving constantly. It's nice that we 
agree on many suggestions already, and I'm looking forward to 
enthusiastic user feedback upon the next releases :-)


Christian