[GNC] Improvements on tooltips and help sections.

Frank H. Ellenberger frank.h.ellenberger at gmail.com
Wed Aug 7 23:59:23 EDT 2019


Hi all,

I am putting this on the user list to get some broader input of
opinions and suggestions.

It started with
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-de/2019-August/010704.html,
were a user reported problems about the usage of counter formats. I
watched several issues with our tooltips and the related help
sections.

The related snippets:
https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/maint/gnucash/gtkbuilder/dialog-invoice.glade#L728:
The invoice ID number. If left blank a reasonable number will be
chosen for you.

I see in this example 3 different issues:
1. The first sentence is no sentence. That makes it almost impossible
to translate it.

2. It does not tell when formating will happen. (only if kept empty on
the automatic generated number).

3. In most cases the user should leave it empty to use the built in
counter and format. That info  is missing and heightens the treshold
for new users.This is a typical case, where extensions, here: allow
overriding of autogenerated numbers, are neutral documented and not
well marked as exemptions.

The related help section
https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-docs/blob/maint/help/C/Help_ch_Business.xml#L533
ff:
<guilabel>Invoice Information - Invoice ID</guilabel> - the
identification number of this invoice. This is your internal number
for this invoice. If you leave it blank, an invoice number will be
generated automatically. See <xref linkend="counters-book-options" />
for more info

and the referenced Counters have their explanation in
https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-docs/blob/maint/help/C/Help_ch_Customize.xml#L1622

I assume it will be similar for the other business objects.

Any suggestions to improve it are welcome.

Regards
Frank


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