{"id":1667,"date":"2011-10-07T16:20:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T21:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splasmata.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2012-01-19T12:06:34","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T18:06:34","slug":"checkbook-does-multiple-accounts-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splasmata.com\/?p=1667","title":{"rendered":"CheckBook Does Multiple Accounts Files"},"content":{"rendered":"

“How can I manage more than one Accounts file with CheckBook or CheckBook Pro?”<\/em><\/p>\n

We get that in our inbox from time to time.<\/p>\n

What these users are looking for is a system that relies on documents they can open from the Finder, just like with Pages or Numbers, so they can choose the document with the set of Accounts they’d like to work on.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the Mac-like way of managing complicated data.<\/p>\n

When we created CheckBook<\/a> we had it hide its data file deep inside the user’s home Library folder because most users wouldn’t need more than one, anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 We were aiming pretty low, after all, at the user who didn’t need more than a very basic check register.\u00c2\u00a0 For that kind of user it’s simpler to store the data out of sight, then, so it can never be accidentally modified by another app – or removed(!<\/strong>).\u00c2\u00a0 This is identical to the way Apple does it for apps like Address Book, by the way.\u00c2\u00a0 So we never adopted a document-based approach to handling the Accounts file, because the user would never interact with the file except to backup or restore it.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a major plus for us, too – we got to skip the “extra” that goes into telling the Mac how to deal with a particular type of document. \u00c2\u00a0Win-win.<\/p>\n

Over the years, as users here and there asked us for the ability to manage multiple files, we’ve realized what we’ve got is a win for most of our users, a win for us, but not a win for a growing segment of users. \u00c2\u00a0We wanted the app to be flexible enough for everyone – but still needed it to be a no-brainer for the majority. \u00c2\u00a0As Macs became affordable more users wanted the ability to share their Accounts with family on different Macs. \u00c2\u00a0Online storage matured, and users wanted to store the Accounts file where services like DropBox could see them. \u00c2\u00a0And then, Mac OS X Lion came and hid the Library folder.<\/p>\n

We were already working pretty hard on CheckBook 2.5 (and we’re back at it!), figuring out all the little details of synchronizing Account data between Macs.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew we could make things a lot easier for the users who wanted to think outside the box if we just switched over to a document-based approach.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem was, we didn’t have a lot of time to think about chucking the whole system – and definitely no time to actually do it.\u00c2\u00a0 CheckBook’s a bit like a spoiled brat – we didn’t raise it to put its toys away at night.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, it doesn’t know how to think of its data as a document, so the code leaves little messes all over the place.\u00c2\u00a0 CheckBook is a fairly complicated little kid.\u00c2\u00a0 Teaching it how to clean up after itself wouldn’t be an overnighter.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we came up with a pretty simple plan to make things easier without taking a week:\u00c2\u00a0 Let the user decide where to store their Accounts file and leave it at that. \u00c2\u00a0So we added that to CheckBook 2.2 and gained\u00c2\u00a0a system where the user could…<\/p>\n