Can't Parse

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Some general comments

>>Trying going "to a backup file and then move it OUTSIDE
>>your ~/.gnucash tree and then File -> Open it" resulted in the same problem
>>as before, but just on chance I tried something else and it worked fine.
>>Instead of trying to open GC via a data file or via the desktop icon, I
>>went to "Applications" and "Office" and tried it from there. It not only
>>opened immediately, but with the latest data.
>>
>>"All's well that ends well!"
>>
>>Steve J
>>    
>>
>
>I could only guess that there was a save to the *right* place which has saved 
>your bacon.
>
>Does the FAQ say "Before upgrading, make a backup of your precious data" ?
>As someone who "lost'" 7 months of data in a hard drive crash I know this all 
>too well. Re-entering data is very painful and that nearly happened to you 
>here.
>  
>
1) There is no particular reason for you to be having your books (and 
the logs and the backups) in any of the GnuCash directories. Just 
because that's where GnuCash would have them by default isn't relevant. 
If you specify some other directory in which to save the books when you 
first create them...
   a) The directory you specify for that is where GnuCash will place the 
backups and logs every save.
   b) That directory will be on the list of places you can select when 
from within GnuCash you use "open". May need to scroll down to see that.
   c) Having them elsewhere makes it much safer when you alter the 
software. But doing this was sort of automatic for me. In this case I am 
maintaining books for an organization so of course wanted the data kept 
in a directory devoted to that organization's data.

2) ALWAYS backup all your user data before any software change. 
Actually, you should have some regular frequency of doing backups even 
if no software change. You decide how much of your data you can afford 
to lose/replace --- a month's, a week's, a day's, etc. This advice is 
not specific to GnuCash.