[moneydance] How to run an account in a separate file?

[Gordon Alley]

I'm still not clear why you don't create a completely new file, rather than
copying the old file. It shouldn't contain any of your data. Is it because
you want the new file to have the same account/category structure as your
current file?
Also the terms are getting confused. Some messages refer to a new file as a
new account. A single MD file can contain any number of accounts (bank
accounts, investment accounts, charge card accounts, etc.). A MD file
contains a set of accounts, typically for an individual or a household. A
new file could have a completely different set of accounts. If you use the
File->New command to create a new file, it should contain none of the data
from the original file.

I originally had a single file just for my own household accounts. When I
started handling my mother's finances, I created a new file for her. There
are now two files on my iMac, and I open whichever one I need to work on.
There is no direct way to transfer any data from one file to the other.

In order to share an account with your partner, but keep your other accounts
private, you would need to create a new MD file, and create the new account
in that file - it would not contain any of your other data. You and your
partner could copy that file back and forth, and he would not have access to
any of your data.

The downside is that you would not be able to access that new account from
your own file, for example to transfer funds between that account and your
own accounts. If that is your plan, you would have to create a "mirror"
account in your own file, and then enter equivalent transactions in both
files.

-Gordon

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 2:34 PM, Larry Alkoff <labradley at mindspring.com>wrote:

> Bruce Marshall wrote:
> > On Saturday 17 January 2009, Larry Alkoff wrote:
> >>> I believe I just copied the files to a new filename.....
> >> I could of course just copy the moneydance.md file to billybob.md but
> >> then all my private data would be visible.  Maybe I could just delete my
> >> private accounts in the new file.
> >>
> >> What do you think of that idea?
> >
> > I guess I don't understand....    why would anything be more visible when
> you
> > change the name of the file?
> > _______________________________________________
> >
>
> My moneydance.md file contains several accounts in it.
> They include my personal bank account, our joint account and 2
> investment accounts.  I don't want any of these to be visible to oursiders.
>
> If I added BillyBob to the accounts in moneydance.md, the others would
> be visible when MD first starts up.
>
> I could possible fix that by copying moneydance.md to billybob.md,
> and then deleting all my private accounts.
>
> I'm a little nervous about messing with data that took years to collect.
>
> Larry
> --
>
Gordon B. Alley
http://www.gordonalley.com