Split transaction: deposit/withdrawal meaning reversed?

[Jean-Christian Imbeault]

I'm new to Gnucash and currently trying to follow the very helpful
online tutorial. I've gotten to section 4.2.2 which covers split
transactions and need some help understanding what's happening when I
create a split transaction.

To help illustrate why I'm a bit confused ... when I want to deposit
into my Assets:Checking account, I simply enter an amount in the
Deposit column and chose a Transfer account. This will deposit into my
Checking account and withdraw from the Transfer account.

However when I create a split transaction the meaning of the deposit
and withdrawal columns seem to be reversed. For example in the 4.4.2
section, for the salary deposit example transaction, I need to enter a
withdrawal from Income:Salary, and deposits into various Expense:
accounts.

If I were to try and do this as multiple simple transactions, I would
do a deposit into Asset:Checking with the transfer account being
Income:Salary.

Why is it a deposit when doing a simple transaction, but a withdrawal
when doing a split transaction? It's a bit confusing and I'd love to
understand this.

Sorry for the newbie question, I'm guessing it's probably been asked
before. (I did try to search the archives but the search tools seems
to be broken at the moment).

Thanks!

Jc