[Kmymoney-devel] Usability Problems for the New User

[Jay Woods]

On Wednesday 03 March 2010 09:32:20 am you wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Jay Woods <woodsjay at cox.net> wrote:
> > This is the first time I have used the program:
> >
> > From Help:
> > KMyMoney
> > Version 3.95.0-svn20090511
> > Using KDE 4.3.5 (KDE 4.3.5) "release 0"
> >
> > From sysinfo:
> > OS:  Linux 2.6.31.12-0.1-default i686
> >  Current user:  woodsj at woolerie
> >  System:  openSUSE 11.2 (i586)
> >
> > This was installed via YaST2 and the distribution was brought
> > up-to-date on Feb 28th.
> >
> > The problem is that the initial screen (equivalent to the new file
> > screen) is no longer appearing on program start-up.
> >
> > Why I would expect it to:
> >
> > The initial screen was attempting to collect Personal Data. I
> > realized that the personal data should all be in the Addressbook.
> > When I went to Contacts in KDE-PIM I found that I had a couple of
> > email addresses and nothing else. Using the fields in the Personal
> > Data screen as a template I filled in the corresponding fields of
> > Contacts. The data was applied and OK'd, the contacts were saved,
> > and the KDE-PIM program was closed.
> >
> > Now the initial screen was canceled so that I could expect the
> > KMyMoney program would be working with a current copy of the
> > Contacts. KMyMoney was restarted. The initial screen no longer
> > appears.
> >
> > The initial screen should reappear until some data is explicitly
> > saved.
> >
> > I am aware that the initial screen is similar to the New File
> > screen but that depends on knowledge that shouldn't be expected yet
> > for a new user.
> >
> 
> Looking forward to your answer and feedback.

Second problem:

The reason for really missing the initial screen is that there is no 
documentation in Help to let me know that this can be done later.

KDE Help Center
	There is no documentation available for /kmymoney/index.html.

Error - KDE Help Center
	The file or folder help:/kmymoney/index.html does not exist.

I tried to get around this a couple of ways:

There is no documentation topic in the http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/ 
site. It would be handy to have a copy of the documentation there.

The latest version, kmymoney-3.96.1, was downloaded for inspection for 
documentations. I didn't actually install it, just unpacked it. The 
documentation is in the form of a docbook for use by KHelpCenter. I 
spent some fruitless time trying to work with the docbook format. 
Apparently there is no standalone reader better than treating it as 
text. That is too hostile for me to winkle out any useful information. I 
was surprised to find out that Konqueror doesn't do any better with the 
format than display the text only as a single indigestible block.
> 
> Regards,
> Alvaro
>