2.1. Accessing Help

When GnuCash is running and this documentation is installed [1] ,

The complete help menu is explained in Section 4.2.1.9, “Account Tree - Help Menu”.

Operating System and Help Viewer

Depending on your operating system we use different programs to display this help document:

Linux
Gnome Yelp
macOS
default web browser
Windows
Windows help viewer

See their respective manuals to get help about help.

2.1.1. GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide

The guide is the counterpart to this manual. It explains the concepts used in GnuCash and has a tutorial that takes you through using GnuCash to manage your accounts. It will appear if you choose Open the new user tutorial in the Welcome to GnuCash! menu.

To open that Guide at a later time go to HelpTutorial and Concepts Guide (Ctrl+H).

Important

It is strongly recommended to read the Guide if you are new to GnuCash or unfamiliar with accounting concepts.

2.1.2. GnuCash Wiki

An immense amount of less-formal, but often more recent documentation about as well usage as development of GnuCash is collected by the community in the GnuCash Wiki ; the Frequently Asked Questions page should be a first stop whenever you encounter difficulty using GnuCash.

Tip

You should also try its search page or browse categories.

2.1.3. GnuCash Website

The multilingual GnuCash website contains:

Announcements
of new releases or server maintenance – usually only in English;
Downloads
of the program or the documentation in several flavours;
Links
to file bugs or suggest enhancements and more.

2.1.4. GnuCash On-line Assistance

Mailing Lists

The primary source of user support is the user mailing list. If English is not your primary language, see wiki:user mailing lists for local lists. That page has also other useful sections like Netiquette or your individual Mailing List Management.

In case you are old school there are 3rd party services which convert some of the lists into other formats:

Web Forum
Nabble;
NNTP News Feed
Gmane.

One must subscribe before posting, even if using Nabble or Gmane.

Chat

Several of the developers and experienced users monitor the #gnucash channel at irc.gimp.net. They are usually busy with other tasks and of course are not always at their computers. Log in, ask your question, and stay logged in; it may take several hours before your question is noticed and responded.

  • If you got disconnected check the IRC logs to verify that you missed nothing related.
  • Requirements, netiquette, and other details are explained in the IRC wiki page.



[1] Our bundles for FlatPak, macOS, and Windows contain it, but under Linux it is usually shipped as separate package gnucash-docs .