feedback on 2.2.9 documentation for Mac

[Yawar Amin]

Hi Jake,

On 2010-11-30, at 21:00, Jacob Wegelin wrote:

> […]
> 
> The current documentation (http://code.gnucash.org/docs/guide/basics-interface1.html) is written for a Windows interface, so that a Mac user gets a little confused. For instance it refers to Edit -> Preferences, which does not work in Mac.
> 
> And in 2.3.7. Menu Shortcuts it says, "Pressing the Alt key with the underlined character in the menu heading will bring up the menu items for that heading." This is Windows lore, I believe.
> 
> Earlier on the same page, someone has written a beautiful description of what I believe is the Windows interface: "At the top of this window is the title bar, which displays the file name (once you have saved the file.) Below that is the menu bar."
> 
> A computer-dumb newbie like me gets momentarily confused looking for the menu bar; then I remember that on a Mac the menu bar is replaced by a bunch of menus at the very top of the Mac screen, rather than in the window of whatever application is open.

Thank you for these comments. They are good catches and should be fixed in the docs. Would you mind filing a bug report for these on our bug tracking site, Bugzilla?[1] It does require you to register and log in, but we really appreciate anyone taking a little time to file bugs. Another benefit is you will see our progress on the issue (Bugzilla will email you) and be able to give further feedback.

> The readme for the Mac says, "Context Help doesn't work. Gnucash Help and the Gnucash Guide are included in the application bundle, in Contents/Resources/English.lproj."
> 
> I did not realize that "context help" means simply Help. I mean, if you click on Help in GnuCash 2.2.9 on a Mac, it doesn't work.

Yes, context help, or contextual help, is help that opens up from anywhere in the software itself. Usually it shows you something specific about the part of the software you’re in at the time. But I guess it can also mean just the main help from Help > Contents, or similar.

> Also it took me a while to figure out that "the application bundle" means the dmg after I have opened it up as a volume. I had no idea what an application bundle was.

Well, as far as I know, the application bundle is the Gnucash.app file. Mac OS X shows an ‘.app’ file as a single file even though it’s really a folder, which is I guess why it’s called a bundle.

> And perhaps the most puzzling is the fact that, although Mac Finder displays something as an application file (GnuCash.app), that "file" is actually a directory, and one can look inside it. Only after bumbling along in that way (and receiving an email from someone on your list which told me to look again at the readme) did I find a way to open up GnuCash.app as a directory and find Contents/Resources/English.lproj/GnuCash Guide, which contains a bunch of html files which are Help documents.

This is actually working fine in GnuCash 2.3 (the unstable series). Clicking Help > Tutorial and Concepts Guide or Help > Contents (on the Mac) open up the HTML files you mention above. So if you don’t mind using the ‘beta’ version of the software (it’s pretty stable if you use XML storage for your files), you could try that out.

> Again, I really like your beginner's guide and am only making these comments to serve as "a new pair of eyes.”

Much appreciated.

Regards,

Yawar

[1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PGP.sig
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 194 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/attachments/20101130/001b2abe/attachment.bin>