Change column widths

Gordon,

I don't know what you have already found. But the little arrow in the upper left will free up that left panel. the columns can be resized using the standard drag approach. JPS

I don't need to free up or close the left panel. My screen is large enough to handle the whole setup with room to spare, but I can't get the column widths set wider so all the numbers will show. I get something like 55,35.. for the number of shares, etc.

I've tried the conventional drag and drop approach several times but it always messes the display up and I have to restore from a backup.

I'm thinking there must be some setting that will turn these column width settings over to me so I can manage them, but I must have that setting set for "frozen" or some such. Gordon

Hi, Gordon.

When you find the secret, please let us ALL know! :^}

I have found how to adjust SOME of the columns in SOME of the screens, but too many are still set in concrete to a width that looks like nobody ever bothered to test them with real data. And they have been this way for YEARS, through many versions of Quicken.

For example, the To Do column at the far right of the Register screen. One inch would be plenty wide, but it's three inches wide on my 17" LCD (normal proportions, 1280x1024 resolution, 5:4 ratio). It's easy to turn it off - once I find the location again (Edit | Preferences | Quicken Preferences | Startup/Navigation - and then uncheck Dock Side Bar (for wide screens only)). But I don't really want to turn it off; I just want to narrow it to a reasonable width so that I can have more screen real estate for something else that doesn't stay static all day every day. (Hmmm... I think I'll turn it off for a few days and see how I like that.)

We can adjust the width of the Account Bar on the left - within limits (between 1" and 2" on my screen) - by dragging the divider, but the one on the right is either too-wide or off.

In Reports and in Portfolio view, the columns are somewhat adjustable by dragging dividers in the headers, but not in the Registers. Wait a minute! I can adjust widths in the Investment Register...Oh, that's because I have that set to a single-line view; Banking Registers use a two-line view with no one-line option. Nope, that's not it, either; when I set Investing Registers to two-line view, they are still adjustable. And I think THIS is the screen that is giving you trouble, isn't it?

My Quicken 2010 Deluxe doesn't have an "Investment Tab". It has "Investing", but the Register here doesn't even have a number of shares column. Oh, wait! If I click Overview here, I get a screen called "Holdings" that is much like the Portfolio view - and it does have a Shares column - and these columns are adjustable normally, and I can make the Shares column plenty wide, over 6" at least.

So the mystery deepens. There are a LOT of ways to adjust things in Quicken, and some of them are very NON-Intuit-ive. :>( But maybe I just need to spend some more time exploring - even in places where I wouldn't expect to find things. Apparently they've added a lot over the years, but I never learned them because I thought I already knew Quicken. ;^}

Thanks a lot, Gordon, for getting me started on this tonight. As you can tell by this rambling post, I've just been learning new things as I've been typing. I may spend hours playing with this new toy, now that you've got me started. We may not have answered your question yet, but I've learned some things about Quicken. (But I still can't adjust the width of that To Do column on the right.)

RC

Let the Record show that "R. C. White" on or about Fri, 8 Jan 2010 20:53:23 -0600 did write/type or cause to appear in alt.comp.software.financial.quicken the following:

It as just this attention to detail back in '05 which made me conclude that nothing was better for '06. Unfortunately, using nothing hasn't been all that productive, but I have more screen space.

- pyotr filipivich. Just about the time you finally see light at the end of the tunnel, you find out it's a Government Project to build more tunnel.

A reply I got about a year ago with the same problem:

Hi, Cal.

That "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" box in Compatibility seems to have no such effect on my system. I've always left that box Unchecked, so I put a check in it this morning and did a short test of some of the changes I discovered last night (see my Reply to Gordon). In my short test, I saw no difference with having that box checked or not.

I'll stand by for reports from you and/or others as to your findings.

RC

Hi, RC - I would guess you are not using a high Windows DPI setting (like my 143 DPI) since you are able to change some column widths to some degree without all hell breaking loose. That happened to me and to the OP to the point where columns disappeared irretrievably, etc., and we both had to do restores. (I assume the OP is also using a high setting, although he hasn't said yet.)

BTW, by replying above your quote of my reply, the quote got treated treated as part of your sig, and thus does not show in this reply. I haven't bothered to try to include it, since anyone interested can always go back to look at it.

Sorry I dropped off the radar today. We had a family funeral and I was out of town.

My monitor is an HP w2408 Wide LCD with the resolution set at 1920 X

1200. There is an abundance of horizontal space on any of these Quicken screens with columns. I should be able to change the column width with no interference or problems because of screen resolution or size.

This monitor can be rotated into a vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) alignment. I am using it in the horizontal orientation, but I really don't think this has anything to do with the described Quicken problem.

The drag and drop method for adjusting column widths acts like it is going to work, but just as I begin to drag the column divider the whole screen goes into a state of chaos and can not be restored except by closing then opening an earlier backup file. Gordon

I don't seem to have the little arrow that you mention. I did click on the cog wheel icon at the top right of my portfolio screen, then clicked on the ? mark at the lower left of the pop-up, and found the following, but the process doesn't work. I have been doing this and always get the messed up screen.

(snip several lines)

To resize Portfolio columns Move your pointer to the top of a column heading, where you see the labels Name, Price, and so on. Place the pointer on the line that marks the border between two labels (at the point where the display of the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow). Click the mouse button and hold it down, and then move the pointer to widen or narrow the column width.

(And the whole screen goes to hell in a handbasket - Gordon)

Antares 531 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

This is the way Quicken has always worked. Certainly in 2008 and now

2010 versions

That's convenient! (The handbasket, I mean)

I seem to remember that at some point there were conflicts between certain videocards and Quicken, but that is a very vague remembrance. So, can you replicate your problem if you set your videocard and monitor to something very simple, like VGA? It'll look awful, I suspect, but maybe you can focus better on what the problem is.

Have you tried the suggestion in my first reply in this thread? Betcha dollars to donuts that you haven't, and that if you do it will work.

Cal, I tried to try the suggestion but could not figure out which icon I was supposed to click on. The Quicken icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen does not show anything that could be interpreted as a "Compatibility tab." I tried several other icons on some of the screens but never found the sequence indicated. Gordon

Hi, Gordon - As more or less noted in the reply (I now remember I had to read it several times when I had the identical problem you do):

1. Right click on the icon that opens Quicken.
2. Left click on Properties.
3. Left click on the Compatibility tab.
4. Select by left clicking in the box (I'm assuming it's not already selected) "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings".

Got it and it works, now. Thanks, Cal. I was confused as to what icon I was to right click. I thought the icon on the task bar when Quicken was running was the icon that I should click, but I see it was the desktop icon instead. I have my desktop icons hidden except when I need them, so I never got around to right clicking this one.

But, there is now a new problem...the whole screen arrangement has been changed and there are now two panels side by side...Holdings and Accounts Attributes...I can view all the details on the Holdings panel by scrolling but in the earlier layout it was stretched across the entire screen and I didn't need to scroll.

This is not really a problem in that the columns that I would have to scroll to the right to see aren't needed often, and I can easily scroll to the right when I do need to look at them.

Thanks, Gordon

Welcome, Gordon - glad it now works.

On the new two panel problem, you apparently used the Overview feature. From Quicken Help:

"Use the account Overview page About using the account Overview page Use the account Overview page to edit your account number, assign a credit limit to a credit card account, set tax attributes for retirement accounts and other tax-deferred accounts, or simply to help you remember when you last reconciled your bank statement.

Open the account you want to work with. Click the Overview button. " (snip)

To get rid of the second panel to eliminate scrolling, click the Transactions button to the right of the Overview button. (I'd never used Overview before, but just got it from the above, and had a devil of a time figuring out how to get rid of it!!)

Thanks, Cal. This does get rid of the Account Attributes panel, but I can't read the number of shares held in each account if I use the Transactions window. The Transactions window is what I use when I buy or sell, but when I'm just checking my records I need to see the number of shares held in each account. This seems to be available only in the Overview panel.

The Account Attributes panel to the right of the Holdings panel in the Overview window is fine other than I sometimes have to scroll to the right to see all the columns. No problem, but if I could squish that Account Attributes panel down a bit there would be no need to scroll.

Anyway, I'm very glad to have the Overview window's Holdings panel set with workable column widths. This was the problem that was bugging me.

Thanks for your help. Gordon

Hi, Gordon - If I understand what you're looking for, try using the Portfolio feature, where there are a number of preprogrammed displays, plus the ability to customize a display to include the items you want to see.

I know of no way to directly control the size or placement of the panes on the Overview tab of any account. I think Quicken uses some sort of algorithm that determines how best to display those panes.

I think a number of factors may be considered, including the screen width, screen resolution, font size, window size and other objects in the Quicken window that use horizontal space - like the Account Bar. With my current configuration: if I remove the Quicken Account Bar, my investment account Overview screen displays the Account Attributes pane alongside the Holdings pane ... if I add the Account Bar back, then the Account Attributes pane drops down and the Holdings pane is alone above the Account Attributes and Account Status panes.

The true width of the (notebook) monitor I am viewing this on is 12 3/4 "; resolution: 1280 x 1024; font size: normal

Q2010 RPM R3 Windows XP Pro SP3.

The overview panel rearranges itself if the Quicken window is too wide. I found a usable width, and I'm careful not to change it.

-- Jim