Hello, My name is Roberto and I'm a Microsoft Money user...

[Roberto Leibman]

Hi,

I'm using Linux almost exclusively. I still have two stupid reasons to 
reboot into Windows every week or so, and I hate doing so: Microsoft 
Money (for home use) and less frequently Quickbooks (for the Business).
I don't (yet) want to get rid of Quickbooks, particularly because my 
accountant likes his quickbooks files. However:

I have been running and using Microsoft Money since 1993, and except for 
a stupid moment in which I archived a few years worth of data I have all 
of my accounts in it since about '96. I have been faithfully upgrading 
since I got version 1 (the one that hooks you) with my computer. I have 
seen a useful and smart program turn into a complete hog with more 
features and misfeatures than I know what to do. Sure, there have been 
many good things added along with all the extraneous junk, but overall I 
am no longer happy, and happier less having to nix my uptime to do it.

So, for the nth time in I don't know how long, I'm going to try 
converting to gnucash. This time I'm not going to try converting every 
single account (open and closed) that I've accumulated, in fact, I've 
decided to just stick with the accounts I have open and those only for 
the past three months or so, and actually, I'm not even exporting them 
from Money but will try to recreate them from the bank's QIF. As you can 
imagine I have lots of questions, not only about how to do particular 
things, but as to good general strategies that other users may be 
following. So here's a first round, some of these are just "nice to have":

1) Printing. In Money, when I enter a check transaction I have the 
option to choose 'Print' for check number, checks therefore queue to be 
printed. I use checks that come 3 to a sheet, and it is very convenient 
to just enter them all, then print them all, then sign them all then 
stuff all of the envelopes. What is the equivalent strategy in gnucash? 
Is there a way to print more than one check at a time? I could see a way 
to print a single check, and of choosing which of the three vouchers to 
use, but I'd hate to have to reload the same page three times unecessarily.

2) Importing. My bank (BofA) gives me the option to download to Quicken 
Web Connect, Money Active Statement (ofx), 2 digit QIF or 4 digit QIF. 
Which is the prefered method for Gnucash?

3) Forecast. In MSMoney, I can take a look at a nice graph that shows 
(given all scheduled transactions) the curve of available moneys in a 
timeframe. This is very convenient to maximize my interest and makes my 
daily averages look better, it helps me choose the best time to send 
particular payments. Is there something similar in gnucash?

4) MSMoney lets me automatically download my American Express 
transactions. Though I can log into the website and download the 
transactions manually, it's nice that it does it automatically.

Has anyone perchance written a how-to for us poor MSMoney or Quicken 
users? How to get through the shock?

Thanks a lot for your patience and time.

Roberto Leibman