Translation...

[Thomas Mann]

   Hello,

   I am, for a few days, translating the "GnuCash Tutorial and Concept
   Guides" to French.

   I am a programmer, with very little accounting skills. I have first
   been experiencing a lot of troubles to find the correct French
   vocabulary to ease the reader difficulties. Using the French version of
   the software (Linux version) to run the exercises and show translated
   screenshots, I have encountered a problem that adds a lot of confusion
   on top of that. The French translation of the program itself is kind of
   a disaster.

   Two major problems:
     * The accounting vocabulary has been mixed up and add difficulties to
       the simple work of understanding accounting concepts. An example:
       the name given to the registers is, in fact, the name accountants
       give to the main book that sums up all the transactions of all
       accounts. Another example, the word "Transaction" is not used in
       this context, and have a different meaning (transaction is more
       like a "deal"). Examples are numerous. It is so confusing that I
       thought it could be useful to create my own .po file and recompile
       the whole thing.

     * But another problem appears : some columns have been inverted. For
       example,asset account register columns have weird title AND are
       reversed. So, it is difficult to understand the titles and the user
       cannot rely on "Debit" on left and "Credit" on right. How is that
       possible?

   I wonder if there is a way to fix these problems or, as the
   documentation I translate is very old, the software is to be used as
   is.

   I have chosen GnuCash because it is centered on the personal accounting
   rather than on bank accounts, as the other programs are.

   Thank you for the information you can give me.

   Regards.