Enter wipes out half of transaction

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 2/28/2016 10:47 PM, E Rosenberg wrote:
> Derek -
>
> Excellent!!
>
> Journal view is what I need.
>
> Ethan
>
Here is some general advice (more than just about gnucash)

Whenever you are new to an application, expect to need to take some time 
to EXPLORE that application, explore its various settings and options. 
Otherwise you are too likely to draw wrong conclusions about what the 
application does or does not do.

Here was a case where gnucash's DEFAULT (out of the box) settings were 
for using as  "cashbook accounting" to reflect more closely that it is 
autoposting. But as indicated, you can chose "journal view" to instead 
be closer to the original way "modern" (last couple hundred years) pen 
and ink on paper bookkeeping was done (except for not having to manually 
do the error prone "posting" from the journal to the ledger).

This also highlights the differences between a "manual" and a "user 
guide", because these really are different sorts of user help. A "user 
guide" would tell you "if you want to enter your transactions the old 
way, first into a journal, then use "journal view". The "manual" would 
be at the level "if you want journal view, here's how to make gnucash 
give you that".  While these two forms of documentation CAN be combined, 
that is usually not a good idea, as you want to search them differently 
for different sorts of help, and lots of duplication would be involved. 
A better way is to have the "user guide" reference the pages or section 
of the "manual"  for the "how to" for that "what to do" .

Michael