GnuCash Documentation 2.4.1 released
The GnuCash documentation team proudly announces release 2.4.1 of the GnuCash
help manual and concepts guide. This documentation is intended for the 2.4
series of GnuCash.
Note: version 2.4.0 of the GnuCash Documentation was only partially released
and had several issues. Hence it was never officially announced and should be
skipped.
Reading the documentation online
An online version of the documentation is available on the Documentation page
of the GnuCash website. The 2.4.1 documentation can be found under "GnuCash
v2.4 (current stable release)" in multiple languages.
Getting GnuCash Documentation as pdf
An pdf version of the documentation available on the Documentation page of the
GnuCash website. The 2.4.1 documentation will be found under "GnuCash v2.4
(current stable release)" in multiple languages.
Getting GnuCash Documentation as source code
If you want to compile the GnuCash Documentation 2.4.1 for yourself, the
source code can be downloaded from:
* Sourceforge
* You can also checkout the sources directly from the subversion
repository as described here.
Changes
Changes between the 2.2 series and 2.4.1 include
* Bugs fixed
o Bug #130920: Explain workaround for user-defined currencies.
o Bug #535424: Update documentation for the Since Last Run
assistant.
o Bug #582547: Add account tree columns description.
o Bug #588035: Correct keyboard shortcut for Actions > Split menu
item.
o Bug #621573: Simplify explanation of entering a split transaction
and remove comment about register bug (no longer applicable).
o Bug #627266: "Steps to enable On-line price updating"
doesn't say
to install Finance::Quote
o Bug #627983: Quit or Cancel
o Bug #627984: Documentation consistency: either don't use the
term
druid or at least explain it.
o Bug #628745 - guide: Add What's New section for current stable
series
o Bug #630652: Expand and add GnuCash Other Assets
Patch author: Tom Bullock (tbullock at nd dot edu)
o Bug #632244: Removed the Preferences section from guide and
updated on help.
o Bug #633385: Restructure section 2.2 Data Entry Concepts to only
include basic info on files, accounts, and transactions.
Minor cosmetic edits to section 2.1.3 and a concept clarification
to section 4.2.2.
Author: David (sunfish62 at yahoo dot com)
Input: Yawar Amin (yawar dot amin at gmail dot com) and Tom
Bullock (tbullock at nd dot edu)
o Bug #633586: Move the explanation of debits and credits from
section 3.2.2 `Income and Expense Accounts' into section 2.1.3
`Double Entry', a more logical place.
Get rid of historical info (easy to look up online), error
checking features info (this isn't a sales pitch), and
banks'
reversed usage of debit and credit terms (a digression, not really
relevant at this point).
o Bug #634075: Replace all usage of the term `druid' with
`assistant' in the GnuCash Guide.
Author: Mike E (mikee at saxicola dot idps dot co dot uk)
o Bug #635357: Document Save As and Open dialogs.
o Bug #635360: Explain backup files from a 2.4 point of view.
o Bug #635361: Update the new account screen description and minor
changes to account basics chapter in help.
o Bug #635363: Add description of auto completion for business
features.
o Bug #635365: Mention invoice post date default.
o Bug #635365: New images for AR Payment and AP Payment
o Bug #635365: documents the new dialog related to style sheets
o Bug #635386: Document trading accounts GnuCash capabilities.
o Bug #635982: Fix typos and grammatical errors.
Author: Yasuaki Taniguchi (yasuakit at gmail dot com)
Review: Yawar Amin (yawar dot amin at gmail dot com) and Cristian
Marchi (cri79 at ngi dot it)
o Bug #638500: Add a note about the source of the report being
modified so that users can follow along.
o Bug #639264: Add Information about Starting Balance in reconcile
window and revise the entire section.
o Bug #639999: 16.3 Current Assets miscalculation in 16.3.5
Wash/Suspense Account
Patch by Chris Curtis.
o Bug #644984: Update to 2.4 UI and workflow the guide section on
scheduled transactions entering from the Scheduled transaction
editor.
o Bug #647735: Add instructions on how to change the GnuCash
interface language.
o Related to bug #635366: Add cross-links for the Tax Options menu.
o Related to bug #635357: Remove QIF assistant description and move
New Account Hierarchy setup description.
* Translation updates
o New and updated German version of guide document, by Juergen
Hoewener.
o Updated German help, by Holger St?hr.
o Much improved Italian version of the documentation, by Christan
Marchi.
o New Japanese version of the guide, by Yasuaki Taniguchi.
* New or improved content
o GnuCash Docs: Update GNOME documentation links, patch by Yawar
Amin
o Update help manual to reflect partial support of capital gains for
US Income Tax reporting and TXF exporting for code 673.
o New figure for Printing tab under Preferences.
o Updated Preferences section to GnuCash 2.4 and minor changes for
2.4 release.
o guide: Reword paragraphs about new file extension
Mention new file extension chosen during 2.3 development. Also,
two paragraphs in the `Basics' chapter talk about the new
default
.gnucash file format. Make the second refer to the first.
o guide: Change/remove references to old versions
o guide: Mention important changes in What's New section
o guide: Explain concept behind What's New section.
o Update Reports section of help manual to reflect enhanced tax
report.
o help & guide: Update date, series and version entity definitions
to current release.
o Update menu paths to 2.4 UI.
o Updated help content to GnuCash 2.4, improved markup and tagging.
o Update help to reflect changes introduced with bug #634357.
o Add shortcut for Transfer command.
o Reintroduce the show splash screen option.
o Add description for File->Add Report item.
o Fix mixed up account names, spotted by aikhan
o Provide separate Finance::Quote instructions for each OS and
clarify the ones for Linux.
o Changed "Portfoloio View" to "Commodity View". A
"portfolio" is a
collection of investments, not a single investment. The register
view in question applies to a single investment, and is used for
all non-monetary commodities.
o Update all references in the C guide & help files to also show
the
correct preferences menu path for Mac OS X in addition to the
Gnome one.
o guide:Remove sections on international preferences and currency
support, and absorb them into earlier introduction and account
setup sections.
o Remove a note about bug #340041 that is fixed now.
o Add information on python invoice import script Documenation
created by Mike Evans
o Lots of small fixes and tweaks to improve the quality of the
content.
* Markup releated changes
o Delete guilabel tags below section titles with same wording
(redundant).
Delete note about debit and credit effects on asset accounts
because it's effectively the same as note `More on Debits and
Credits' at the end of Section 3.2.2 (Income and Expense
Accounts).
Replace GnuCash name with defined app entity.
Use tip tags for tips.
Use an xref tag for a reference.
o Replace all uses of GnuCash with the app entity
o Replace all usage of the words 'GnuCash' or
'Gnucash' with the
'app' entity
Patch by Yawar Amin
o Add <application> markup to &app; entity.
o guide: Add single-quote entity definitions
o Use ’ entity instead of "'"
o Define entities for current stable and unstable versions, patch by
Yawar Amin
o guide: Add entities for stable and unstable series
Sometimes referring to the exact version in the documentation is a
bit superfluous, and instead we just want to refer to general
GnuCash release series (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, etc.) in which something
happened.
o Add mdash entity to enable the use of xml2po and add description
for entities.
o Add guibutton tag.
o Generate html doc in UTF-8 instead of ISO-8859-1
o Add figure tags and pgwide attribute to some screenshots
The figure tags should go around all screenshots to have them show
up in the list of figures.
The pgwide attribute repositions the image in pdf documents. Large
pictures still fit on the page thanks to this flag.
o Use different accounting equation image for html or pdf rendering
This is meant as an example of how the pdf images can be improved.
This may not work well for screenshots though.
o Improve figures and images for pdf printing and remove unused
ones. Change ppi to 144 for all figures
o Add hyperlink to GnuCash user list.
o Add function attribute to Enter key tagging.
* Other, non-visible changes
o Remove old files that collide with existing ones in
case-insensitive filesystems.
o Add chapter getting-help to Makefile.
o Merge branch 'bug633066' into HEAD
o Remove redundant index.
o Add gitignores.
o Separate getting-help chapter to validate getting-started xml
file.
o Update the build system to a more recent xsl stylesheet, including
ones required for pdf and htmlhelp (Windows)
o Restore pdf creation for gnucash-guide and gnucash-help in all
languages.
o Update docbook specification from 4.1.2 to 4.4.
o Migrate the Italian GnuCash guide to a po file based workflow.
o Set svn:eol-style property for all XML files to LF to avoid
CRLF/LF mixups.
o More information on translation process
o Several other small fixes and tweaks in the documentation build
system
About the Program
GnuCash is a free, open source accounting program released under the GNU
General Public License (GPL) and available for GNU/Linux, *BSD, Solaris, Mac
OSX and Microsoft Windows. Programming on GnuCash began in 1997, and its first
stable release was in 1998.