Searching within splits

[prl]

OK, I've found the problem. The search succeeds if I search the register 
that is the destination of the split entry 
(Expenses:Groceries:Supermarket). I was searching my bank register 
(Assets:Name-of-bank-account) where I enter the splits. I think this 
behaviour is implied in your email. I use splits as an alternative to an 
Assets:Wallet register, something I inherited from my previous Quicken 
setup. Perhaps I'll make the change next FY.

I clearly need to read GnuCash Help Section 7.1 Find Transactions in 
more detail, though I find the behaviour quite counter-intuitive. 
Perhaps that wouldn't be the case for an accounting maven. :)

Thanks for your help. PEBCAK.

Peter

On 13/01/12 16:54, John Ralls wrote:
> On Jan 12, 2012, at 8:43 PM, prl wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the quick reply, John, but searching on Memo instead of Description doesn't seem to work for me, even for strings I *know* are in splits (because I'm looking straight at them). I've checked that it's not a case sensitivity problem (the Case Insensitive? button is left pressed as in the default), and also I've tried using the correct case in the typed in match string, with both Case Insensitive pressed and not pressed.
>>
>> I'm doing the search by selecting the account I want to search (with no Search Results window in the accounts tabs), then pressing command-F and doing the search as described above. This seems to work as I expect for searches in transactions that aren't split. Whether I select New Search or Refine Current Search (the window default) doesn't seem to make a difference.
> That's very odd. I just tested it and it worked as it should: I entered "Reinvested Dividend" in the memo field of a split, moved to another transaction to close the edit, then punched command-f and set the first listbox to "memo" and the value to "dividend" and clicked on the "Find" button. I was rewarded with a new register showing the transaction I had just changed. This works both from the Accounts page and from a register for the account with the modified memo field, but not from another account's page.
>
> Are you sure that the string  you're searching for is in the memo field and not the action or the notes field? (The last is a second text field in transactions, visible only by enabling double-line mode.)
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
>