GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 754239
Suggested Change to Reports Terminology
Last modified: 2018-06-29 23:42:35 UTC
At some point recently in the development cycle, the terminology used in GnuCash menus for saved reports got changed from "Custom Reports" to "Saved Report Configurations." I suspect that this change happened when the underlying software to improve this functionality was implemented. “Custom” got replaced with “Saved”, and “Reports” got replaced with “Report Configurations.” The first is fine, IMHO, but the second is clunky. It also has unfortunate interface effects, as the phrase causes buttons and menus to spread out wider to accommodate the longer term. I can surmise that the new term “Report Configuration" is technically more accurate; however, I do not believe that the distinction is meaningful to most users. I believe that most users would consider a new “configuration” to be a new report. I would like to see the simpler “Reports” restored to the menus. Whether the terminology is “Saved Reports” or “Custom Reports” is immaterial to me, though. The place to explain the custom report functionality would be the (currently-nonexistent-but likely-to-be-added) Reports chapter of the Tutorial.
Indeed, GUI space is a scarce ressource not to be wasted. A shorter term needs to be found. I'm also impartial to either label.
"Saved" is better. "Custom" introduces potential confusion with reports that users write for themselves in Scheme.
Indeed. "Saved" was chosen to distinguish from self-written reports in scheme, which are commonly referred to as "custom". "Configurations" was added because GnuCash also has a feature to export a report as html. "Save" and "Export" have very similar meaning for most users. When searching for a good name I was deliberately looking for something that would avoid all these various sources of confusion. Note that I originally chose "Preconfigured reports" which got criticism as well. You can see part of the discussion here: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=699271#add_comment the other part was held on the mailing list I believe. Thinking it through, I agree that for most users "Configuration" doesn't mean much. So I'm fine with a name change. If most are happy with "Saved Reports", I can live with that. A side note on the use of horizontal screen estate: - the menu option is not an issue. There's report with a longer name that widens the menu more than the "Saved report configurations" menu option does. - The toolbar buttons are an issue on platforms that enable both icons and text for that image. Considering that the rest of the industry has more or less abandoned the idea of having text in a tool bar, I am tempted to drop this from gnucash as well and stick with icons only in the future. That would immediately save us a substantial amount of horizontal screen estate.
My 2 cents: I think having the text under the toolbar buttons really improves usability. I don't have a problem with toolbar button space (I use Windows GnuCash mostly). I'd be OK with going to "Save Report" and "Save Report As", but I don't see the need and the documentation would have to be updated again.
Chris, I never suggested eliminating the text with toolbar options. What I suggested was a more natural term for the saved reports, like, "Saved Reports." To me, the phrase "Saved Report Configurations" is ungainly, and likely only confuses users. I would prefer a simpler term whenever possible. A quick check shows that the only place in the documentation that would require an update is in Chapter 9.1 in the Help manual. Indeed, the older terminology is still present in Chapter 4.4.
Hi David, I agree "Saved Report Configurations" is ungainly, but I think it says what it does most unambiguously. My comment about liking text under toolbar icons was intended more for Geert and other developers than you as Geert said he is "tempted to drop this from gnucash as well and stick with icons only in the future". Thanks for pointing out Help Chapter 4.4 still uses the old terminology. I see in Table 4.20. Reports - Toolbar Buttons, and there maybe other places. Also http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Using_GnuCash#Saved_Report_Configurations has been updated with current "Saved Report Configuration" terminology. I would like to make the documentation consistent and accurate but I would prefer not to then have to change it back again soon. Does any developer intend to make the change back to "Save Report" and "Save Report As" anytime in future?
(In reply to Chris Good from comment #6) > I would like to make the documentation consistent and accurate but I would > prefer not to then have to change it back again soon. > > Does any developer intend to make the change back to "Save Report" and "Save > Report As" anytime in future? No. The current names are long but the best we can do for now without causing confusion. So go ahead and update the documentation. For the very long term I am pondering redoing this all over again and integrating saved report configurations closer with the reports they belong to in the gui instead of the tacked on feeling they have now. I have several possible ideas about that, but it's not worth discussing them until I'm at a point I have time and energy to actually do the work. The changes would likely be significant and require a documentation update anyway. So that would be a reasonable time to rediscuss the best names to use as well.
Just to prod the discussion out of the box a bit, do we really need toolbar buttons for saving the report config? If yes, do we really need two? I wouldn't change that in maint, of course, but IMO it's worth considering for 2.8.
Created attachment 324850 [details] [review] Update Report menu item names to Save Report Configuration
Created attachment 324851 [details] [review] 2 Fix order of Report menu items
Hi John, My thoughts re your comment 8: I cannot think how to remove the 2 toolbar buttons without reducing usability. I like that you can update the current saved report config with just 1 click, which implies we need a second button for creating a new saved configuration. I think we could move the 2 buttons to the options window but then you lose the single click update of the current saved config if you have already closed the options window. New users already find it confusing that you run a report, then change the options if needed. I think removing those 2 buttons would add confusion. Possibly it is worthwhile loosing the 1 click ability if toolbar space is an issue, but toolbar space is not an issue for me.
Thanks for the patches. I have applied them the maint, so they will appear in the next version of gnucash.
As for the ongoing discussion on the tool bar buttons here's my opinion: I think it would be good to keep the "Save Report Configuration" button, but we can drop the "Save Report Configuration As..." button. This only goes for the tool bar. We should keep both entries in the menu. That will align the two save actions with the common save action for the whole book. So: - one save button on the toolbar (which is normally used the most often). This button falls back automatically to save as... if not currently working on a saved configuration (as with the whole book). - an additional save as option in the menu for the less common situation where you want to save the current changes under a different name. I also think we should only make this change for 2.8 and keep 2.6.x as is.
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