Data Entry Oddities

[Maf. King]

On Monday 25 September 2006 20:46, David T. wrote:
> I've been migrating information into Gnucash 2.0.1, and I've noticed a few
> UI oddities that I'd like to understand better.
>
> First, it appears that pressing enter on a split line is different from
> tabbing "off the end" (for want of a better term) of that same line. When I
> press Enter, GC automatically enters an Imbalance-USD line item in the
> transaction, whereas if I tab off the end, a blank line in the amount is
> created. What is going on here, and why is there a difference?

Hi,

See Edit -> Preferences -> Register Tab

>
> Next, if I have to enter a transaction in the past in a register that has
> later transactions, when I leave the main line of the transaction to put in
> the splits, the transaction moves to its chronological place in the
> register. This is remarkably annoying if you have more than one old
> transaction to enter, as you have to repeatedly go back to the empty
> transaction at the end of the register. Couldn't the move happen when the
> transaction is closed/left?

Yeah, that bugs me too.  Although, it is behaviour I saw in 1.8.x (at least, 
1.8.10, which is the last I tried)

>
> The third thing is a little hard to explain. I have been changing account
> information in multiple split transactions (i.e. transactions with several
> splits, such as paychecks). The easiest way to accomplish the change is to
> open the register I am emptying and changing the line to the new account.
> When this is done, the transaction "disappears" (into the new account)--as
> it should. However, if Auto-Split View is on, GC attempts to go to the next
> line, which creates odd results, since the transaction is no longer
> "there." If the next transaction in the register has fewer split lines, it
> will skip that transaction. If the next transaction has enough lines, then
> GC takes you to linenum + 1. It would seem to me more logical to have the
> split line value reset if the transaction is closed, so that the next
> transaction starts fresh at line 1.
>

Don't know about that one.

> Finally, I have been burned several times by the fact that GC doesn't save
> on a transaction-by-transaction basis. I am used to the many other database
> and financial packages out there that store data record by record. Is there
> a way to change GnuCash's save behavior to follow a transactional save
> model?
>

AFAIK, there is no option for auto-saving.  But GC creates a log file of 
transactional changes, which is supposedly replayable (File -> Import -> 
Replay Log file).  I know there were some limitations with that functionality 
in 1.8, but I seem to remember it has been much improved for the 2.x series. 
Don't know, as I haven't tried it.

As always, save early, save often.

HTH,
Maf.

> Thanks!
>
> David