Data entry problem

[John Ralls]

> On Aug 26, 2016, at 11:30 AM, John R. Sowden <jsowden at americansentry.net> wrote:
> 
> Every once in a while I retry gc, and I often get hung up on the data entry.  This time I am trying to enter a business deposit. The name is "deposit".  when I enter the name gc brings into the transaction not only the name and also the account number of a previous 'Deposit' transaction, but also  the amount.  That is error prone for data entry.  As I am entering my various income account numbers and amounts, I noticed I ended up with a 7,000 'imbalance-USD'.  Is there a way to stop , at least the copying of a previous amount.  It is not unusual to have more than one transactions to a name, a little less usual to have the transaction to the same account number, but the same amount is getting in the way of smooth data entry.  Spreadsheets don't copy down an amount like they do text for a cell with the same starting text.
> 
> It also moved the transaction to a different location, on the same date.  Is there a way keep the transactions where I entered them?
> 

GnuCash isn't a spreadsheet and doesn't behave like one.

There is at present no way to disable autofill. For most users and most use-cases it does the right thing, speeding input and improving accuracy. There are of course exceptions and there are periodic requests to disable it. In the meantime use the tab key to move between fields and don't press Enter until you're sure the transaction is entered correctly. Avoid generic descriptions like "deposit"; that doesn't help you keep track of anything. Describe where the money came from.

Default sort order is by posted-date, number, number, entry date/time, description split memo, split action, split reconcile status, split amount, split value, and split reconcile date. This can be changed to sorting on a single column with View>Sort by; "Standard" returns it to the default order. Select "Date of Entry" to keep the transactions in the order you entered them.

Regards,
John Ralls