Budgeting?

[The Doctor What]

* Conrad Canterford (conrad at mail.watersprite.com.au) [030208 17:58]:
> On Sun, 2003-02-09 at 08:28, The Doctor What wrote:
> > > > BTW: I really think that on the reports, that you should be have two
> > > > nodes for each account that has a sub-account.  One for the account
> > > > and another for all the sub-accounts.  Because it's a pain
> > > > otherwise.
> 
> <helpful explanation snipped>
> 
> I've been irritated by this too. There IS a checkbox that says "Include
> all sub-accounts" (Or words to that effect) and/or a dropdown box that
> says "Include sub-accounts to level ..." in the options which will do
> what you want, but I agree its very unintuitive.
> However, I think the dual-node thing is not the right solution. We need
> some way of expressing this in the gui without making it confusing. My
> thought would be to highlight the account on a single click, and flag it
> with something else on a double click (the double click of course
> meaning "this account and all sub-accounts").

The Include all sub-accounts and "Include sub-accounts to level"
do-dads that some reports have are an improvement, but they are
global.  What if someone wants all of Assets, but only Expense (and
none of Expense's sub-nodes).

Graphically, the problem is that the content of the node and the
folder-ness of the tree are represented in one place.

It might be better (this is just an idea) to have this instead:
| Liabilites
- Expense and Sub-Accounts
  | Expense
  + Household
  + Groceries
  ... etc.

The idea being that on the tree that "Expense" vs. "Expense and
Sub-Accounts" being two different things are represented by two
different things.  

Using single vs. double clicks will allow access to the feature, but
it won't be obvious, and a user would need to know the "magic"
combination to do it.  But it would definately be a good solution
untill a perfect one comes up.

I may think of alternatives later.  This has been something that has
irked me about the 'tree' widget for a lot of software.

Ciao!

-- 
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.  Inside a dog it's too dark
to read.
	-- Groucho Marx

The Doctor What: <fill in the blank>             http://docwhat.gerf.org/
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