gAcc HELP
                                   -----------




	Copyright (C) 1999  Thomas Nemeth.

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
	(at your option) any later version.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.

	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
	Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.


WARNING !
    This help file is formated in order to be parsed and read in the gAcc
    help windows. DO NOT attempt to modify it !



Plan :
-------

#1. Getting started
#2. Accounts
#3. Operations
#4. Categories
#5. Menus
#6. Files
#7. Team - Contact


%
1. Getting started
-------------------

    Once you have compiled and installed gAcc without any problem, just launch
it and it'll create it's own default configuration directory and file, and show
you a window called "the accounts list". This is a list of the accounts you have
put in the wallet file. Of course, the first time you launch gAcc, you have no
wallet file.
    You can try an example provided with the gAcc package or create your own
new wallet file. To do so, you just have to add new accounts to the list and
then save the file. Take also a look to the preferences menus to set up gAcc
as you want.
    After that you can start to add new operations to any of your accounts.

    Note that not all of the functions are implemented.


%
2. Accounts
------------

    An accounts is composed of several elements. First its name by with you
can know what account it is. Then its number, given by your bank. Next the
bank where you opened it. The opening balance is the amount you have put in
it at the opening or creation in gAcc. At last there is its operations list.
The operations list is the mean to remember the operation you've done with this
account and to keep you in mind how much there is left on this accounts.
    The Accounts list which is displayed in the main window contains 4 columns
that are for the name of the account, the bank where it is, its cleared
operation's amount (that must be equal to your bank statement) and its balance.
All accounts are listed in their entering order. Accounts the balance is below
0.0 have their last column in red.

    You can execute some functions on each account :
 - Open its operations list
 - Edit its informations
 - Delete it
 - Add a new account
 - Graph its list of operations (Only account and operations graph by now).

    There are a few means to execute the functions you want. First there is a
menu entry in the menu bar. But the others are attached to each mouse button :
 - button 1 (left), when double-clicked, displays the account's operations list
 - button 2 (middle) displays the account's informations
 - button 3 (right), when double-clicked, displays a context pop-up menu that
   is similar to the menu in the menu bar.


%
3. Operations
--------------

    An operation is composed of 8 elements. A number for a cheque, an object to
know why you did that operation, the date when you bought/sold that thing, the
amount of the transaction, the medium specifying how you did it, an entry saying
if it's a credit or a debit operation, a flag to know if it is cleared or not,
a category, a third party, and finaly a splits list.
    The operations window that is displayed when ou open an account's list of
operations contains 8 columns. The first is the date when you did the operation,
next comes the number of the operation/cheque, after is the object or reason why
you did that operation, then comes the category in which you classify that
operation, the fifth column is the cleared state (when you've seen it in your
bank statement) of the operation, the amount is in the sixth column if it's a
debit operation or in the seventh column if it's a credit one. The last column
is for the intermediate balance. Cancelled operations have their line in violet,
and operation for which the intermediate balance is below 0.0 have their last
column is red.

    Functions available on an operation are :
 - Edit the selected operation to make some modifications
 - (un)Clear the selected operation
 - (un)Cancel the selected operation
 - Delete it
 - Add a new operation
 - Search for operations with differents criteria
 - Print the operations list.

    There are a few means to do want you want with operations :
 - with the mouse's left button you can double-click to open the operation's
   informations
 - with the middle button you can set that operation to Cleared / Uncleared
 - and with a double-click on the right button you can display the pop-up menu.


%
4. Categories
--------------

    Categories are a mean to create a classification in the list of operations
an account contain. They are usefull for a research of a list of operations of
a certain type.
    You can modify an operation's category by editing it.
    You have access to the categories list in the settings/categories menu.
There you can add/remove/edit any category. Each category has a name (you can
add a slash to specify a subcategory e.g. : "Car / Insurance") and a number. I
don't give you the advise of modifying the number since they are internaly
managed but in some cases you have to do this.

    There are a few means to access caterogies' functions :
 - the left mouse button, when double-clicked, displays the selected category's
   informations
 - and the right button's double-click displays the pop-up menu.


%
5. Menus
---------

    The gAcc menus are ordered in a simple manner :
#5.1. The "File" menu
#5.2. The "Settings" menu
#5.3. The "Accounts" menu
#5.4. The "Operations" menu
#5.5. The "Categories" menu
#5.6. The "3rd parties" menu
#5.7. The "Help" menu


%
    5.1. The "File" menu
    ---------------------
     - New wallet
        Create a new empty list of accounts and operations. If one is already
        opened, you'll be asked for saving (if the "automatic saving" is not
        on). Don't forget to save your changes.

     - Open
        Open a wallet file. You'll be asked to save the wallet (if the
        "automatic saving" is not on). Don't forget to save your changes.

     - Save
        Save the already opened wallet file.

     - Save As
        Save the already opened wallet file with another name.

     - Close
        Close the already opened wallet file. You'll be asked for saving (if
        the "automatic saving" is not on). Don't forget to save your changes.

     - Quit
        Exit the program. You'll be asked for saving (if the "automatic saving"
        is not on). Don't forget to save your changes.


%
    5.2. The "Settings" menu
    -------------------------
     - Preferences
        Open the preference window. It has 4 panes that allow to configure :
        + The first is to configure your country's currency and it's position
          in relation to the amount of an operation or an account.
        + The second is for the date and the way you like to see it. you can
          configure the date separator and the format (dd.mm.yyyy / mm.dd.yyyy).
        + The third allow only to configure the Euro value in regard to your
          country's money.
        + The forth is the one for printer configuration (ASCII/PostScript and
          command/options for each).
        + The fifth pane contain a few options : "Auto save files",
          "Tear off menus" and "Use last opened account".
        + The sixth and last pane determines if the advanced features are used
          or not (3rd parties and splits).
        You can, after modification click either on "OK" that will keep your
        changes and save them later on, "Save" in order to immediately save your
        changes and "Cancel" which will discard them.

     - Categories
        Open the categories window. It display the list of categories you have
        defined in order to changes/see them. They are listed in alphabetical
        order, but debit and credit are separated : debit categories come first
        and credit categories come after. See the "Categories" menu.

     - 3rd parties
        If the advanced feature "3rd parties" has been selected in the
        preferences window, this option is available. Its opens a window that
        allow to edit 3rd parties the same way the categories window does it
        for categories.

     - Scheduled operations
        Opens the scheduler window. You can then add, change or remove some
        scheduled operation that can be periodicaly done.
        (Not yet implemented)

     - Convert to Euro
        Open a window that will ask you if you are sure you want to convert all
        your accounts and operations to Euro. If you answer "OK", your account
        will be converted to Euro and renamed with a ".wallet-euro" extension.
        Your old wallet file will remain in your ~/.gacc/ directory.


%
    5.3. The "Accounts" menu
    -------------------------
     - Open
        Open the operations list's window for the selected account.

     - Edit
        Edit the selected account's informations.

     - Delete
        Delete the selected account.

     - Add
        Add a new account to the opened wallet file.

     - Graph
        Graph the selected account's amount during the past year up now (by
        default since dates are modifiables), credit and debit operations
        and finaly a pies graph for categories (Not yet implemented).


%
    5.4. The "Operations" menu
    ---------------------------
     - Edit
        Edit the operations informations. You can change anything for the
        selected operation except the cancelled state that is modifyed by the
        menu entry below. If you enter a category that is not in the categories
        list you are asked to save or not that new category.

     - (un)Clear
        Set or unset the cleared state of the selected operation.

     - (un)Cancel
        Set or unset the cancelled stats of the selected operation.

     - Delete
        Delete the selected operation.

     - Add
        Add a new operation.

     - Search
        Search for operations of the same medium, type, category, date or
        cleared state. After the search is complete, a window opens that lists
        all the matching operations. You can print that list the same way as
        using the print list menu (see below). The window used to display the
        resulting operations is the same as the usual operations' list window.
        So you can use the mouse buttons to display the operation's
        informations, change it's cleared state or display the pop-up menu...

     - Print list
        Print the operations list. A "Print" window is opened for you to choose
        the destination (printer or file) and the format (PostScript or ASCII).
        The defaults entries for printing are :
        o ASCII printing : command = "a2ps", options = "--stdin="
        o PostScript printing : command = "lpr", options = "-Plp "
        Notice the space after "-Plp " : it's here to separate options from
        filename. The default ASCII printing command is a2ps, anyway, you can
        change it to what you want, but the printing function add a name for
        the print job that is the name of the file where are stored the
        informations befor printing. If you want to change that, you must know
        the option to use to deal with that. For example, with lpr, options
        would be "-Pascii -J ", with ascii = the name of your ASCII printer
        configured in /etc/printcap.


    Note that the "Operations" menu is the same as the menu for editing and
    manipulate operations that come from a research result, except that the
    three last part are not shown (Add, Search and Print).

%
    5.5. The "Categories" menu
    ---------------------------
     - Edit
        Edit the selected category informations.

     - Add
        Add a new category.

     - Delete
        Delete the selected category.


%
    5.6. The "3rd parties" menu
    ---------------------------
     - Edit
        Edit the selected 3rd party informations.

     - Add
        Add a new 3rd party.

     - Delete
        Delete the selected 3rd party.


%
    5.7. The "Help" menu
    ---------------------
     - Help Index
        Displays the Help System window at the Index page. Indexes are composed
        of buttons that open a new paragraph of the help file.

     - About
        Shows the "About box" :)


%
6. Files
---------

    The differents files used in the distribution are those who are in
etc/, docs/, and of course the gAcc binary :) :
 - gacc is the program binary
 - etc/categories.def a sample of categories file (in french)
 - etc/essai.wallet a sample of accounts list with few operations (in french,
   and the categories don't match since they where entered by hand)
 - etc/gaccrc.sample a configuration file sample to be modifyed and put in
   ~/.gAcc/gaccrc
 - INSTALL explains how to install gAcc
 - COPYING is the licence file :)
 - README tells you what is really gAcc
 - TODO lists what remains to do
 - BUGS lists all the bugs I encountered
 - doc/HELP this file
 - doc/gacc.1 the man page

    These files are to be put in the "share" sub-directory of your default
installation directory. The binary gacc will be put in the bin sub-directory of
that directory.

    The files that are created when running gAcc are :
 - ~/.gAcc (directory)
 - ~/.gAcc/gaccrc the configuration file that will be created if not found
 - ~/.gAcc/categories.def the categories definitions file
 - ~/.gAcc/*.wallet are all the files you'll create to manage your different
   accounts, but one file can contain many accounts with their operations
 - ~/.gAcc/*.wallet-euro are the files that have been converted to Euro. It's
   then up to you to rename them in .wallet an modify your configuration (either
   from within gAcc or by hand) : DON'T FORGET to backup your files !


%
7. Team - Contact
------------------

Original Author : Thomas Nemeth <tnemeth@free.fr>

gAcc Team :
    - Thomas Nemeth :
        Main code writing.

    - Michel Verdier <mverdier@chez.com> :
        CBB imports/exports, configure scripts, bug fixes.

    - Julien Blache <jb@jblache.org> :
        Debian packages.

    - Gianluca Montecchi <gianluca@pluto.linux.it> :
        Italian translation.


There are also many others who have contributed patches and fixes ;
we thank them, for helping us in advancing gAcc.


    You can contact me at tnemeth@free.fr, my icq number is 12513496. You can
also contact Michel Verdier at mverdier@chez.com or Julien Blache at
jb@jblache.org.

The main gAcc website is at sourceforge :

    http://gacc.sourceforge.net
    You'll find there a cvs repository to get the latest snapshots and 2
    mailing lists for devel, help and suggestions.


There is another website for gAcc in 2 languages (fr, en) :

    http://tnemeth.free.fr/projets/gAcc.html
    http://tnemeth.free.fr/projets/gAcc-en.html