Usability questions

Talengix kj at talengix.com
Sat Dec 11 06:21:26 EST 2010


Greetings,

I'd like to suggest a couple things that would make GnuCash more
user-friendly and intuitive. Maybe they already exist, maybe they don't...
if so please enlighten me. If not, perhaps they will be considered as
additions to the development road map?

1. On the ledger screen, once it fills up with entries there is no way to
move the blank transaction row at the bottom of the page up for easier
working. The blank transaction line is pinned to the bottom of the screen.
Therefore, the user is forced to work in a very tight space the whole time.
Not only is the space tight, but it is confusing since the info in the
bottom pane of the application as well as the windows task bar are all
crammed together. It should function like excel in the way that when you get
to the bottom of the page you can still use the scroll bar to create some
space below the last transaction for some breathing room.

2. The process of creating splits seems very unintuitive (if I'm doing it
right) to me. First I adjust the date and then add a description. Next, I
must go way up to the main buttons and click Split. Then I must go way down
to the transaction and add the transaction amount for one account. Then I
must be careful to not hit enter or it wrecks the whole transaction and I
must cancel and start over. Assuming I don't mistakenly hit the enter button
by habit, to get the next part of the transaction I must go way back up to
the split button on the main bar and click not once but twice. The first
click collapses the first split line (why?). The second click finally opens
them both up. Now, finally, I can choose the other account and finish the
split. Furthermore, I was unable to find any shortcuts to do splits quicker
and more efficiently. I think this is a serious problem since in double
entry accounting probably 95% of all transactions involve a Split. Let me
know if I am doing this wrong.

Anyway, I am new to GnuCash and really like the software. And these are some
of my initial impressions about the usability of the interface. I'm sure I
will have more if folks here are interested in hearing them and if this is
even the right place to post them. Perhaps a developer list would be more
appropriate?  Open source is the best, as always I want to thank the
developers who work hard to bring us free software that not only rivals, but
often exceeds the quality of commercial software. Cheers, Kevin.


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