[GNC] Copy and paste account into a new account
Stephen M. Butler
kg7je at arrl.net
Sun Sep 7 15:01:39 EDT 2025
Looks like the Down Arrow is only on the ACCOUNTS register -- sorry
about that. My mistake.
You need to located GNC_DATA_HOME for your box and edit the file in
books/your-book-name.gnucash.gcm. For me on Ubuntu that is in
$HOME/.local/share/gnucash/books.
Look for a liine: |balance_width=0 and change that to something like
balance_width=94.
You can find this info at:
https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/151095/gnucash-checkbook-columns-shrunk-too-far-cannot-get-them-back
I did a search for: gnucash zero width column
Following info came from
https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#GNC_DATA_HOME
(while looking for GNC_DATA_DIR referenced in above article).|
GNC_DATA_HOME
*Versions:* 3.x and more recent
This is the subdirectory in USER_DATA_HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#USER_DATA_HOME>
that GnuCash uses exclusively for its /user specific/ data. The default
locations:
Linux
pristine
USER_DATA_HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#USER_DATA_HOME>/gnucash
Flatpak
$HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/data/gnucash
Windows
%APPDATA%
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#Environment_variables_LOCALAPPDATA_and_APPDATA>\GnuCash
macOS
HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/Library/Application
Support/GnuCash
Note that on Windows the base directory is /APPDATA
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#Environment_variables_LOCALAPPDATA_and_APPDATA>/
and on macOS this is /HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/Library/Application
Support/. The base directories will be different for the next relevant
directory:
USER_DATA_HOME
This directory can be used by /applications/ to store data that can't be
stored in the user's data file for some reason. For example gnucash will
store saved reports here, or some metadata such as which register tabs
were open for your books last time you closed them. The default locations:
Linux
pristine
$HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/.local/share
Flatpak <https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Flatpak>
$HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/data
Windows
On this platform there are actually two directories for this kind of
data:
Local—machine specific
* The machine is no member of a Windows domain *or*
* the user has choosen a (machine) local profile on login:
HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>\AppData\Local,
often referred to as %LOCALAPPDATA%
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#Environment_variables_LOCALAPPDATA_and_:APPDATA>
Roaming—domain wide
* The machine is member of a Windows domain *and*
* the user has choosen a domain wide profile on login:
HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>\AppData\Roaming,
often referred to as %APPDATA%
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#Environment_variables_LOCALAPPDATA_and_APPDATA>
macOS
On this platform there are actually two directories for this kind of
data:
native
current
HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/Library/Application
Support
OS X 10.6 and older
HOME/Library/Applications Defaults
by ported software
HOME
<https://www.wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#HOME>/.local/share
The former is native to macOS (and will be used by GnuCash), the
latter is often used by software that's ported from linux (like
GTK3). The difference will get clearer further down.
It's important to understand this directory is shared by all
applications you run on your system. So aside from GnuCash, applications
like Firefox, Microsoft Office, LibreOffice and so on will also write
here. To avoid clutter, most applications have the courtesy to create
their own subdirectory here and only write in that subdirectory. This
leads seamlessly to the next couple of important directories:
On 9/7/25 11:38, Edwin Booth wrote:
> Thank you! I have tried your No. 2 suggestion countless times and just
> does not reappear. I’m not sure what you mean by the down arrow on the
> column headers (I’m using a MacBook). I only get the side-to-side
> arrows as well as the regular cursor. I’m keen to try your No. 3 but
> have no idea how to do that.
>
> Thanks so much for the reply!
>
> Edwin
>
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2025 at 1:17 PM Steve Butler
> <stephen.m.butler51 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Create the new account.
>
> Delete the old account and check the box to transfer all
> transactions to the new account.
>
> It may be that your balance column was either:
> 1. Turned off -- check the down arrow on the column headers.
> 2. Pushed off the page by wider columns. Double click the
> Description column headers to see if columns suddenly appear(and
> description column shrinks)
> 3. Width of Balance column set to zero pixels. There is a file
> you need to edit to fix that. Not sure which one nor where it is
> located.
>
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2025, 11:11 Edwin Booth <elybeedle at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi. I’m having trouble with one of my accounts. I have lost
> the Balance
> column and I think I need to make a new account. Is it
> possible to copy and
> paste a whole account into a new account window?
>
> Thanks, Edwin
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
More information about the gnucash-user
mailing list