# Using This Document & Getting Help

This document is organized in two dimensions:

- From the GUI (Graphical User Interface) explaining the available options and their functions, with links to deeper descriptions and usage. GUIMenus

- By classifying Operations, Tasks, or Functions based on whether it is an Account, Transaction, Reporting or other oriented operation. Examples are:

  - Account Actions - setup-accounts

  - Transaction/Register Actions - ch_Common_Trans_Ops

  - Tools and Assistants - ch_AccRegTools

  - Reporting & Charting - Reports

  - Customization - custom-gnucash

## Accessing Help

When &app; is running and this documentation is installed

Our bundles for &flatpak;, &mac;, and &win; contain it, but under &lin; it is usually shipped as separate package `gnucash-docs` .

,

- this window is accessed by

  - pressing the F1 key or

  - selecting from the menu Help Contents .

- Ctrl H Help Tutorial and Concepts Guide will open the other part of this documentation.

- In most dialogs the Help button will lead you directly to the page which describes that dialog.

The complete help menu is explained in AccTree-help-menu.

## Operating System and Help Viewer

Depending on your operating system we use different programs to display this help document:

&lin;

- Gnome Yelp

&mac;

- default web browser

&win;

- &win; help viewer

See their respective manuals to get help about help.

### &app; Tutorial and Concepts Guide

The guide is the counterpart to this help. It explains the concepts used in &app; and has a tutorial that takes you through using &app; to manage your accounts. It will appear if you choose Open the new user tutorial in the Welcome to &appname;! menu.

To open this Guide manually go to Help Tutorial and Concepts Guide or press Ctrl H .

It is strongly recommended to read this guide if you are new to &app; or unfamiliar with accounting concepts.

### &app; Wiki

An immense amount of less-formal, but often more recent documentation about as well usage as development of &app; is collected by the community in the &app; Wiki ; the Frequently Asked Questions page should be a first stop whenever you encounter difficulty using &app;.

You should also try its search page or browse categories.

### &app; Website

The multilingual &app; website contains:

Announcements

- of new releases or server maintenance – usually only in English;

Downloads

- of the program or the documentation in several flavours;

Links

- to file bugs or suggest enhancements and more.

### &app; On-line Assistance

Mailing Lists

The primary source of user support is the user mailing list. If English is not your primary language, see wiki:user mailing lists for local lists. That page has also other useful sections like Netiquette or your individual Mailing List Management.

In case you are old school there are 3rd party services which convert some of the lists into other formats:

Web Forum

- Nabble;

NNTP News Feed

- Gmane.

One must subscribe before posting, even if using Nabble or Gmane.

Chat

Several of the developers and experienced users monitor the #gnucash channel at &srv-irc;. They are usually busy with other tasks and of course are not always at their computers. Log in, ask your question, and stay logged in; it may take several hours before your question is noticed and responded.

- If you got disconnected check the IRC logs to verify that you missed nothing related.

- Requirements, netiquette, and other details are explained in the IRC wiki page.

## Mouse Buttons

This document refers to mouse buttons as Button1, Button2 etc.

- Button1 is typically the left mouse button or the right button in a left-handed setup

- Button2 is typically the right mouse button or the left button in a left-handed setup