interesting feature suggestions (was: GnuCash vs. Quicken)

[Chris Lyttle]

On Thu, 2002-12-12 at 12:00, Roland Roberts wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> >>>>> "cs" == Christian Stimming <stimming@tuhh.de> writes:
> 
>     cs> On Sonntag, 8. Dezember 2002 02:08, Shayne Lennox wrote:
>     [...]
> 
>     >> not being able to clear a split easily,
> 
>     cs> Err... can you explain more what you mean by this one?
> 
> I'm not sure what Shayne meant, but I have a (minor) complaint there;
> the default display mode is one-line per transaction and if you are
> entering a new transaction, GnuCash's memorized transactions will
> automatically fill in the splits from the last time you made a similar
> entry.  Sometimes that's not what you want and there is no quick way
> to just clear the whole split and start over.
> 
> Sort-of related is that in the default one-line-per-transaction mode,
> the comments fields get duplicated from a previous transaction even
> though they may be completely inappropriate.  Yes, I know I can change
> the view to automatically show me that information, but (1) I'd like
> GnuCash to remember that setting the next time I open the file, and
> (2) I'd like that auto-split feature to not require me to enter the
> amounts in the splits area when there is only one item in the "split".
> 

I'm not sure if you're using 1.6 or the new 1.7 version, so I'll comment
here on both. The feature you're asking about here is in 1.6, tho its a
bit non obvious how to get it. When entering a transaction, if you do
the tab thing then click delete GnuCash 1.6 will ask you either to
delete the whole transaction or to just remove the splits. In 1.7/1.8 we
changed this to make it a menu item called Remove Transaction Splits on
the Actions menu. What this does is remove all parts of the transaction
except the currently opened account. This also removes and memo's but
not the current account's description and amount. Also to avoid the
auto-fill of the transaction, once you type the description just select
the Transfer field with your mouse instead of tab (This is explained in
the new help).
Your second point also touches on some already included features. To
enable auto-split by default you can set this in the preferences under
Register. The 'Default Register Style' dropdown menu lets you select
'Auto-ledger' which will make all accounts use auto-split mode when
opened. The problem with not entering the amount in the splits area is
that GnuCash has no way of knowing if you are going to make more than 2
splits or not.

Chris
-- 
RedHat Certified Engineer #807302549405490.
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