#39 CA State Tax Form 540 - FileName / default path issue

[Howard]

In the CA State Tax form 540, the first question, "FileName" for me defaulted to

examples_and_templates/US_1040/..

But this produces a couple of errors that baffled me at first:

1) The file browser then can't find anything, and
2) If you try to Compute Tax you get an: Error: Could not open Federal return 'examples_and_templates/US_1040/US_1040_....txt

I finally tried changing this FileName (really a file path name) to start with my Home directory and then finally was able to drill down to my *_out.txt file, as follows:

src/OpenTaxSolver2016_14.06_linux64/examples_and_templates/US_1040/US_1040_hwj_out.txt

I'm not sure why this occured, but perhaps the error message could suggest how to fix it.

Thanks for this software. It took a little bit of playing with to see how to use it, but I finally got my 1040, etc done w/ it. (I know, I'm getting them in a little late for 2016, but was best I could do this year.) Would be nice to have something to input the missing check boxes and a few other things, but I'm pretty happy with what you have created!

[Aston Roberts]

This is a good question, since referencing files can be troublesome. Relative references can be confusing depending on where you started the GUI from, or where you placed your data file. A bug was found and fixed in the GUI's file-browser, that could have added confusion. It should work better now (get version 15.01 or beyond). Also, you might avoid problems by either starting the GUI by navigating into the OTS top directory with your file browser, and clicking the "Run_taxsolve_GUI" icon. Or from the command-line, by cd'ing to the OTS top directory, and starting the "Run_taxsolve_GUI" app.

If you still have problems, let me know -- and describe how/where you started the application. I'd like to find robust ways to avoid such problems, and your feedback helps.

Thanks!
-- Aston