Trouble With "Enter" vs. "Tab" (Again)

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 13 01:38:20 EST 2011


As a long time user of Gnucash, I understand that the developer group makes distinctions between the "Enter" key and the "Tab" key, but once again, I have had scratch my head at this seemingly arbitrary distinction.

The circumstance that had me pulling my hair out this time was when I attempted to enter the sale of a stock with a capital gain/loss. I don't buy or sell stock often, so each time, it's an adventure.

You see, I *know* there is an oddity with this situation, but it *still* took me about 20 minutes to remember how to work Gnucash into doing what is supposed to happen. 


I looked at some of my earlier transactions, and tried to follow them. Each time I entered the split for the gain/loss in the asset account, Gnucash dutifully filled in 1 share priced at the gain/loss. If I then went in and zeroed these out, Gnucash dutifully added *another* line against Imbalance-USD in the full amount.

I tried going into the transaction from one of the other accounts, but that was not successful either.


Then, I went to the Concept Guide (Chapter 8.7), and looked at the description there. I found nothing of help to solve my problem.

Finally, just about ready to give up, I REMEMBERED.

On the line, as I am finishing putting in the zero share line, instead of using the Enter key, I MUST TAB OFF THE LINE.

Then--and ONLY then--does the transaction get entered the correct way.

I continue to marvel at this distinction, and I cannot fathom why it would make any difference if these two keys caused the same actions in the software. I understand that some feel that "Entering" a transaction is Something More than merely "Tabbing," but honestly, this is just a nightmare for an average user (like me).

If there Truly is a Reason for this distinction--and that reason is still relevant in 2011--then I think that both the differences and their reasons NEED TO BE DOCUMENTED IN EVERY PLACE THAT THEY OCCUR. For example, I also know that 
Tab/Enter do different things when a user types a new account while 
inputting transactions in the register.

This one in particular is almost unfathomable.

David



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