How to get stocks' total return?

[risterian]

"Fred Bone" <Fred.Bone at dial.pipex.com> wrote:

>On 24 September 2012 at 23:43, risterian said:
>
>> risterian <en9e-60hk at dea.spamcon.org> wrote:
>> 
>> >Manoj Kumar <mkmetw at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >>Hi,
>> >>
>> >>Advance portfolio report will list the dividend received under "Income"
>> >>column if the dividend transaction includes the stock account. Both
>> >>debit and credit columns for the stock account split should be left
>> >>empty.
>> >>
>> >>You can also check this thread (reply of Jannick Asmus)
>> >>http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Advanced-Portfolio-and-dividend-in-
>> >>cash-was-How-to-register-a-dividend-in-cash-td1433051.html.
>> >>
>> >>Regards,
>> >>
>> >
>> >Thank you very much for the reply.
>> >
>> >The solution at the end of bug 581191 does seem to work, I tested
>> >by changing one cash dividend to be shown that way.
>> >
>> >But it was tedious and error-prone to do just one, and I have 
>> >hundreds.
>
>Tedious, agreed. But it shouldn't be too error-prone if you're systematic 
>about it:
>
>For each Income:Dividends:<stockname> account:
>- open the account
>- View->Transaction Journal
>- Go to first txn
>- Click on its last actual split, on the Account name
>- hit Down key to move to blank split
>- Type enough to locate the related Asset:...:<stockname> account
>- Tab & backtab (selects account & highlights the text)
>- Ctrl-C to copy full account name to clipboard
>- Then for every remaining txn:
>-- Click on its last actual split, on Account name
>-- hit Down key
>-- Ctrl-V & Enter
>
>Note that according to 
><http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2009-May/029779.html>
>you are supposed to record the dividend from the share account window. 
>However, AFAICT this is not necessary - doing as above achieves the 
>required purpose, including entering the dummy value of 1 for "Price". At 
>any rate, the Advanced Portfolio shows the correct values under "Income".
>

Thank you VERY much - this is far easier and less error-prone than what
appeared to be necessary from the other descriptions due to the need to
enter into the stock's register to be able to enter the 1.

This information should be added to bug 581191, as that's where I think
most people interested in this end up at some point when searching, since
there's nothing in the main documentation or FAQ.  Is that something you
can do?