save corrupted gnucash file

[Zhang Weiwu]

On 2010年09月24日 22:44, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Zhang Weiwu <zhangweiwu at realss.com> writes:
>   
>> If ID is 100% for human consumption, what is behind the logic of not
>> allowing human to edit it or allowing duplicate IDs to be in the first
>> place?
>>     
> Um, you can absolutely edit it!  From the invoice viewer click on the
> "Edit" toolbar icon and it will open up the "Edit Invoice" dialog.  From
> there you can change the Invoice ID, Customer, Job, Terms, and all the
> other data!
>
>   
This is the /least intuitive thing/ I have discovered in GnuCash.

I definitely tried to edit the Invoice ID before getting my hands dirty
with XML.

   1. I look at the tab title saying "View invoice", and I think, oh, I
      am in the view mode, but suddenly I found I can edit entries of
      the invoice, then I think, this cannot be the view mode, the word
      "view mode" can be a mistake or a way to hint there is no
      particular way to view an invoice except to edit it.
   2. Then I think it must be in fact edit mode, but I go to edit
      Invoice ID, and found it read-only. Then I think, oh, even in
      editing mode, ID is not editable, thus it is hardwired.
   3. Then I stopped to look for an Edit Button on the tool bar.
      Besides, the icon do not obviously mean "Edit" and no text is
      beside it, the only hint being mouse-over text on the tool bar,
      making it findable only if you had been searching for it.

Quote: from Sherlock Holmes

    Dr. John Watson: Let me consider ID is not editable and hack it.
    [He opens the XML file]
    Sherlock Holmes: Watson, don't! Observe...
    [Watson sees edit button]
    Dr. John Watson: How did you see that?
    Sherlock Holmes: Because I was looking for it.

I guess it takes two Sherlock Holmes to find the Edit button in this
context. If you read my 1,2,3 steps to reproduce the mis-conception, you
see I had been perfectly reasonable on assuming the context.

A text-over message on the read-only ID field might help a lot. Even
better would be a re-design of this particular UI as there are still
much other places to improve.

Question to everybody: am I the only person who thought invoice ID is
not editable?

Best regards
Zhang Weiwu