Documentation Regarding GnuCash Import Features

[John Ralls]

> On Aug 27, 2015, at 12:59 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> John,
> 
> I am moving this thread to Devel, since it has moved beyond typical user threads.
> 
> Further digging in the Help Manual shows section "3.3. Import QIF Files," which explains that particular import process, but no other. I suspect the interest in putting this information here has to do with the fact that many newcomers to GnuCash will be importing their data from Quicken. However, I think it a little oddly placed and sadly alone (not to mention hard to find).
> 
> Additional scanning in the Help Manual (I almost never use it, alas!) turns up "Chapter 6. Common Transaction Operations," under which a section on importing might be placed. 
> 
> As an aside, I will note that this chapter and Chapter 4 of the Tutorial include largely similar content, and I wonder which document would be the better repository for this information. Ultimately, I believe that one of these chapters should be merged into the other, and all reference elsewhere should go to the one spot.
> 
> If a section on importing should be added to the Help Manual, I would propose putting it in chapter 6, moving 3.3 into it (with appropriate updates), and inserting a general note in 3.3 that discusses importing in general, and refers readers to the appropriate section in chapter 6.
> 
> If instead, it should go into the Tutorial, I imagine it would go in either as a new section in Chapter 4, or as a separate chapter immediately after this chapter.

David,

I think importing deserves it’s own chapter and don’t think  that it really fits in “Common Transaction Operations”. The latter implies to me things one can do to a single transaction.

I agree that we should have the importing information in only one place, and I think that the Help manual is better than the T&CG.

Since you’ve done a couple of patches for the docs already this month (I’ll get to applying those when I get back this weekend unless Geert beats me to it) do you think you could take on at least the rearrangement? Even though they have different code bases, all of the importers except CSV work pretty much the same way so there could be “what you can import” and “how to import” sections. CSV needs a subchapter of its own including how to manipulate an export to get it to import.

Regards,
John Ralls