David, I agree on all points.
Regards, Adrien > On Sep 12, 2018, at 10:19 PM, David Cousens <davidcous...@bigpond.com> wrote: > > Adrien, > > While I agree with the concept David T is proposing to streamline the process > for new users and the thrust of your > comments about the new user experience, the new account heirarchy at least as > it is currently implemented, will be used > by anyone creating a new set of books, whether they are experienced Gnucash > users, experienced accountants, total > newbies or someone transferring from another program. > > As a newbie you can get a perfectly usable set of accounts for exploring > Gnucash by simply clicking Next through the > assistant then Apply and then saving the file. > > Perhaps this needs to be made clearer to new users as well as informing them > that any choices they make can be changed > later (except for the very few cases where this is not possible - I can't > think of any but I personally don't currently > use the full capabilty set of GnuCash's features but I used more in the > past). > > If this was done up front, they could then easily skip through. > > The suggestion John made of creating a simplified new file option with > defaults based on the locale and an advanced > setup option using the NAHS Assistant seems to meet this need as well. Even > knowing what you want in a CoA requires a > fair understanding of your accounting needs as well as the functionality of > GnuCash. Alternatively in other posts I > think both Frank and I have suggested a checkbox which by default disables > selecting those options which a new user is > going to find confusing and provides default values. > > I would have thought the CoA setup is not too bad. It comes with the common > accounts selected, it does perhaps give the > new user a view that there is a lot more to explore. Some new users will be > looking for business functionality and other > "advanced " functionality from the get go. There will always be a few new > users who will be confused by having to start > the program. > > Personally when evaluating software, I jump in without reading manuals first > because I figure if the interface isn't > intuitive to a decent extent, I am not going to want to go too much further, > unless I really have no other option. > Intuitive for an experienced computer user can however be very different for > someone with limited experience. My wife > never reads manuals ever, she just asks me. I on the other hand consult my 5 > year old grand daughter. > > I share Mechtilde's concern that in making things easier for the new user we > don't lose functionality for the > experienced user. We should hopefully look for mechanisms for doing both. > > David Cousens > > > > > On Wed, 2018-09-12 at 10:33 -0500, Adrien Monteleone wrote: >> As someone who has helped other people get started using GnuCash (and >> remembering my own first steps) I agree >> completely with these points. Those book preferences are not self >> explanatory. (perhaps bugs in their own right) A new >> user is left to either trust the defaults and move on, pause and revisit the >> startup process several times while they >> track down help info and digest it, or give up in frustration. (I’ve seen >> the latter three times—you may or not be >> surprised how many people do *not* want to read a book before they start >> using a piece of software, I chose the second >> option personally) >> >> Unless the startup assistant (wizard, druid, whatever) can be redesigned as >> an explanatory walk through to choose >> these settings, that part should be removed and the defaults chosen for the >> user. >> >> As for trading accounts, I turned them on after the fact for tracking >> commodities as additional currencies. I’ve never >> bought or sold any since doing that, but I’ve played with turning the >> setting on and off to experiment with the >> setting’s effect on some reports and I’ve never noticed any issues. (but >> again, I only have opening balance >> transactions in each currency) If turning Trading Accounts off after >> entering buy/sell transactions is bad news, then >> I would think the option to do so should be disabled. >> >> Regards, >> Adrien >> >>> On Sep 12, 2018, at 9:38 AM, David T. via gnucash-devel >>> <gnucash-devel@gnucash.org> wrote: >>> >>> Hello, >>> >>> As I begin the process of migrating text from the Help to the Guide (cf. >>> Bug 796855), I am working on the Help >>> information regarding the New Account Hierarchy Setup (NAHS) assistant, and >>> I have a couple of questions about the >>> second screen of the assistant, the “New Book Options” screen. >>> >>> First off, while I respect the intent to allow users the option to set >>> these preferences from the creation of their >>> file, I wonder whether this is misguided. To wit: all of these options are >>> quite technical in nature, and all of >>> them can be set at a later point by opening the appropriate preferences. >>> Adding these options here adds complexity >>> that can easily be deferred to a later point. While it is true that this >>> assistant runs whenever a user chooses >>> File->New (meaning that an experienced user might wish to add these >>> settings from the assistant), I am willing to >>> hazard a guess that most users will invoke this assistant *only* when they >>> first start using GnuCash, and *only* >>> when their heads are already swimming with the overwhelming experience that >>> is GnuCash. Asking a new user to choose >>> whether to use Trading Accounts or to Use Split Action Field for Number is >>> IMHO pointless. They aren’t going to be >>> able to make an informed decision. >>> >>> <aside>I’ll note that this becomes an obvious issue when I attempt to write >>> the help section for the screen. I am >>> left either with writing a huge explanatory section on the details of each >>> of these settings, which detracts from >>> the flow of the NAHS narrative, or with adding a generic note that advises >>> users to accept the defaults and read >>> about the details in other sections of the Guide.</aside> >>> >>> So, for the new user, the only real effect of this screen is to introduce >>> confusion and questions. Can it be removed >>> from the assistant? >>> >>> Related to this screen, my second question has to do with the “Use Trading >>> Accounts” setting. Can it be turned off >>> once it has been enabled in a given GnuCash file? >>> >>> ISTR that this option is a one-way street—i.e., that, once turned on, it >>> can not be turned off again. Is this still >>> the case? If it is still true, then I would strongly suggest that this >>> option shouldn’t be placed on the NAHS >>> Assistant, since a new user won’t be aware of this. >>> >>> David >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> gnucash-devel mailing list >>> gnucash-devel@gnucash.org >>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-devel mailing list >> gnucash-devel@gnucash.org >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel > _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
