First use; Problem with Gnucash files

[Fred H Olson]

In Sept I installed the gnucash version (1.6.6 ) that came with the Red
Hat Linux ver 8.0 distribution CD's that I have on my system.  On Oct 3
my wife worked with Gnucash for several hours, entering 3 months checks
and reconciling those months.  She used the default set of accounts but
created a few additional accounts.  I have not used Gnucash much, have studied
the docs some trying to figure out our problem.  I have moderate Linux / Unix
skills.

When my wife was ready to stop for the night (I was already asleep) she
went to the files/save as but was unsure of what directory to save her
work in. She clicked on Save in the dialog box and did not get an error
message. When she went back to the register, there was nothing there.
Later when one runs Gnucash there are no accounts listed.

The Gnucash related files I've been able to find that were created on the
day she worked with the program are:

There is a directory .gnucash created in Sept but it has nothing created
on Oct 3 (has some stuff I apparently created since).

In my root directory (where she was logged in):

  4 -rw-rw-r--    1 fholson       120 Oct  3 23:02 gnu-cash
  4 -rw-rw-r--    1 fholson       120 Oct  3 23:02 gnu-cash.20031003230216.xac
112 -rw-rw-r--    1 fholson    108963 Oct  3 22:57 translog.20031003133526.log
  4 -rw-rw-r--    1 fholson      1925 Oct  3 13:05 translog.20031003123423.log

I looked at these with a text editor. Three of them  seem to have
general, initial information except for translog.20031003133526.log which is
much longer and has check number and payee information that my wife entered.

I used the Gnome search for files facility and searched (starting at
root ( / )) and did not find gnucash.sgml which the Gnucash Help
(The GnuCash Documentation Set) says is "The main document ..., which
really contains only the "sequencing" information on what files are to
be consulted to make up the body of the document..."

On the web I found:
 2.8. Backing Up and Recovering Data
 http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/basics_backup1.html

Which says a procedure something like this may recreate desired state
(which can then be saved normally):
  1) open the .xac file
  2) "Replay GnuCash .log file"

but...

o I dont see the menu item:
  "File" -> "Import" -> "Replay GnuCash .log file"
(In gnucash version (1.6.6 ) I only see "Import QIF..." )

also
o I wonder if new accounts added in a session are recorded in .log files 

Can her work be recovered?  
Should I upgrade to a newer version?
(I saw that one of the improvements relates to the directory where files
 are stored)

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411   (near north Mpls)
fholson at cohousing.org 612-588-9532 (7am-10pm Cent time)
List manager of Cohousing-L & Nbhd-tc  Ham radio:WB0YQM
http://www.cohousing.org/fholson