Bug 253530 - in ledger view the cursor moves to wrong position after selecting the Transfer or Withdrawal tabs
Summary: in ledger view the cursor moves to wrong position after selecting the Transfe...
Status: REPORTED
Alias: None
Product: kmymoney
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 4.5
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KMyMoney Devel Mailing List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-10-07 18:24 UTC by Michael Berger
Modified: 2011-06-23 08:46 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Michael Berger 2010-10-07 18:24:04 UTC
Version:           4.5 (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

a) after clicking the "Transfer" tab the cursor jumps to "Pay to:" while in my opinion it should be positioned at "Transfer to:". Perhaps the "Pay to:" option can even be grayed out.

b) after clicking the "Withdrawal" tab and then "Pay to:" normally an "Expense category" must be assigned from a list. But the expense categories do not show on top. They can only be found as the last of all types at the very bottom of a long list forcing the user scrolling through so many other types. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
happens constantly with every working session and transaction in exactly the same way 

Actual Results:  
very inconvenient and time consuming especially when repeating many similar entries

Expected Results:  
saving time by having the cursor jump to the next most probable action/category 

no special configuration or whatsoever
Comment 1 Cristian Oneț 2011-05-21 21:29:10 UTC
Maybe this is more like a workflow issue:
a) Did you try just to select (by typing and using the auto-completion and the drop-down) an asset/liability account instead of an income/expense account (category) - by this you already have the transaction setup and you don't need to click on the transfer tab - it will be automatically selected

b) Same as above, instead of scrolling trough all the accounts just type it's name, it is also valid to have a deposit from an expense account (I'm thinking of a refund)
Comment 2 Cristian Oneț 2011-05-24 20:04:22 UTC
Response from Michael follows (Michael please use the bug report to post answers):

Hi Cristian,
So far you are the first and only one who attended to this.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=253530

I very much appreciate your interest and comments.
Quote
--- Comment #1 from Cristian Onet <onet cristian gmail com>  2011-05-21
21:29:10 ---
Maybe this is more like a workflow issue:
a) Did you try just to select (by typing and using the auto-completion and the
drop-down) an asset/liability account instead of an income/expense account
(category) - by this you already have the transaction setup and you don't need
to click on the transfer tab - it will be automatically selected

b) Same as above, instead of scrolling trough all the accounts just type it's
name, it is also valid to have a deposit from an expense account (I'm thinking
of a refund)
Unquote

ad a)
I tried several times to do as you suggested, but it does not work.
This is what I did:
Click on the Transfer Tab - cursor jumps to "Pay to"
I start typing " As...." and KMM auto completes "Asset Account"
I press Tab, Tab again and the cursor jumps to the next fields but the next
fields stay empty, although such Transfers to the "Asset Account" have been
done before. So, everything must be filled manually.

This is exactly the same behavior when I move the cursor manually from the
"Pay to" field into the "Transfer" field.
What am I doing wrong here?

ad 2)
Yes, it works as you said, but only if such withdrawal to the same payee
already was executed before and had been memorized.
I maintain 140 expense accounts and 68 asset accounts out of which I only
remember a hand-full. I would be forced to use a hard copy of all my accounts
if I was to start typing the names in.
Again, I do not see what I am possibly doing wrong here.

Cristian, even if I would do as you have suggest and a) would work as you
proposed, do you not agree that it would be more convenient and proper to have
the cursor straight away jumping to the "Transfer" field in case a) and to the
Expense Categories in case b)?

To put it in other words:
As long as a Transfer is not a payment (it is NOT by definition!) it is only
logical to have the cursor default to the Transfer field and not to the
Payment field.
And
As long as a withdrawal reduces my assets' value it is a payment and thus it
is logical to default the cursor to the Expense categories and NOT to the
Income or Asset categories.

I have no idea of the efforts involved to adjust the program accordingly, nor
do I know whether or not the majority of the users concurs with me. As I said,
you are the only and first to comment till this very moment; this makes my
wonder.

If it cannot or should not be done, it's OK with me, after all, it is only a
wish and KMM will stay my favorite accounting application.

Great work, thanks and regards
Comment 3 Cristian Oneț 2011-05-24 20:06:27 UTC
This is what I was trying to describe in words.

http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/screencasts/253530.ogv

From my POV the ledger is pretty complicated already adding extra logic wouldn't necessarily make it better for everyone.
Comment 4 Cristian Oneț 2011-05-28 21:50:19 UTC
Did you manage to take a look at the video illustrating a usual workflow with the transaction form?
I didn't mean to sound like we accept no comment I was just expressing my opinion that it pretty easy to find the appropriate categories with what we have right now if you say that you have 140 income/expense accounts and you always scroll to find the one you want to use that can be pretty slow. It's much faster to type something about the account.
As for the deposit/transfer/withdraw tabs you can see from the video that they are controlled by the payment direction and account fields.
Comment 5 Michael Berger 2011-06-05 07:37:27 UTC
Cristian, thanks for the video and comments, all highly appreciated.
But the auto complete feature is nothing new to me and I am using it from the beginning.
Still, it would be just appropriate to see the cursor going to "Transfer to" after choosing "New", "Transfer" instead of to "Pay to".
And it would also be nice to be presented straight away with the Expense Categories list after choosing "New", "Withdrawal", filling in "Pay to" an then clicking on the down arrow in the Category field.
However, nothing of great importance.