[moneydance] "show other side" vs splits and loans

[Edward Reid]

At 10:57 05/07/06 -0500, Jim Karcz wrote:
>On my system, the show other side seems to work, but a bit clunky.  If
>I do it on a transaction with a spilt, it opens the first
>account/category in the split list.  I suppose it could prompt you to
>pick from a list....  Anyway, if you click in a field in the newly
>opened window and transaction, you can then do the show other side
>again.  Clunky, but kind of useful unless you have 10 splits....

Well, I tried again and managed to get most of the "other side" of splits 
to show. I'd still have to opine that it's pretty much broken though.

As you say, doing "other side" on the whole transaction gets you the other 
side of the first split. This works but is seriously misleading.

Once the splits window is open, I can get some of the other sides. BUT -- I 
NEVER get the other side of the split I click on. Sometimes I get the other 
side of the NEXT split in the list. When I do, the window that opens is 
frozen until I go back and close the splits window. Sometimes I get dropped 
back into the main register -- that is, the main register gets focus even 
though the splits window is still open in front of it. But I have not found 
a single case in which "show other side" from the splits window works 
correctly.

>I agree though, this interface could probably work smoother, but, to
>me, MD is still better than Quicken, all clunkyness aside.

Oh, I wouldn't be here if I didn't agree -- I'd have just sucked it up and 
done the Mac->Win Quicken conversion. The fact that that conversion was 
going to be harder -- much harder as it turns out -- than converting to MD, 
and that then I'd be stuck on Windows, was only one factor in deciding to 
switch.

OTOH, I think it's generally agreed that Quicken has a lot that we all 
like. Most MD users have used Quicken or Money in the past. For the most 
part we switched not because of feature content but due to lack of support, 
inability to have any input on the direction of the product, program and 
services bloat due to the need of a large company to continue making money 
on a mature product, and the general attitude of a company that a) has its 
product installed on nearly every new Mac and PC or b) owns most of the 
western world. My comments and questions here are intended to make MD work 
for me and to make MD better.

That said, I'm trying to get used to the way MD does splits (the separate 
window), but so far I'm finding it difficult. The Quicken way (expanding 
the splits in-line in the register when the selected transaction has focus) 
has its problems too -- especially the way it can make the register display 
jump around -- but so far it seems better to me.

MD is in no danger of infringing on the user interface copyrights for 
Quicken -- such protection has only been upheld in cases where the entire 
UI was cloned, and then rarely. The recent patent discussion here indicated 
that Intuit holds only a few patents, and that none relate to the UI (see 
Vic Roberts' posting). So there's no problem with MD implementing features 
in similar ways to Quicken when that makes sense.

Edward
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org