Accelerator for marking transactions as reviewed (9 Legacy Votes)

Quicken Community

Is there a keyboard accelerator for marking a transaction as reviewed and if not can you add one in the next release? It is a very common action and currently  requires several mousing steps. Thank you.

Unknown

Hi Michael,

Thank you for submitting this idea. To help us make sure this idea gets the the correct development team, please let us know which Quicken product (QWin or QMac), what version (2015, 2016, etc.) and what release you have installed. Also, let us know whether you using the US version of Quicken or Quicken Canada. 

Thanks,
Dave

Unknown

Quicken for Mac 2017 US. Also, a related idea (which would not replace the accelerator but might be a good supplement) would be to automatically mark a transaction as reviewed if it is selected for more than 2 seconds (or some short time period). This could be a preferences option if someone doesn't want it and it should still be possible to override on an individual transaction by manually resetting its status to unreviewed.

Unknown

Michael R. Brent said:

Quicken for Mac 2017 US. Also, a related idea (which would not replace the accelerator but might be a good supplement) would be to automatically mark a transaction as reviewed if it is selected for more than 2 seconds (or some short time period). This could be a preferences option if someone doesn't want it and it should still be possible to override on an individual transaction by manually resetting its status to unreviewed.

Thanks, Micheal!  Now that your suggestion has been tagged with the appropriate product, the Mac development team will take a look at the idea and consider it for inclusion in a future release or product update.  Thanks again for taking the time to submit this idea!

Dave

RickO

Michael,  If you are right-clicking the transaction, the using Set Status of Selected Transaction, there is a slightly quicker way. That is to left-click directly on the pencil or dot icon in the Status column which will immediately pop up a menu with Reviewed at the top (even if the transaction wasn't the currently selected one).

Alternatively, you can select a bunch of transactions as once using shift-click for sequential selection, or command-click for non-sequential selection. Then right-click and use Set Status of Selected Transactions to mark them all at once.

Finally, if you're willing to spend $36, there's a very powerful macro tool called Keyboard Maestro. It can be used to create a keyboard shortcut to trigger the Reviewed menu item. I describe it in detail here:

https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/is-there-a-page-that-lists-all-mac-keyboard-shor...

Unknown

Thanks, those tips were useful.

Unknown

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

jacobs

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

It isn't absurd for someone to mention a tool which can help so long as Quicken doesn't have this feature. You might not find it's worth spending money on; it's only a helpful suggestion from a fellow user for anyone who finds they want an immediate fix.

As for this being an "obvious" need, I'm not going to disagree, but I will only point out that there's a list of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of features, large and small, that Quicken Mac users have been asking for over the past few years. Little by little, the developers are working on adding the desired functionality, but it's a slow road. In many cases, they have focused on features where it's impossible to do something currently versus features where it's possible but not optimal. and because we all use Quicken differently, what's a no-brainer top-of-the-list for one user is inconsequential to another. (For instance, ask someone whose investment basis and gains are completely wrong because Quicken can't deal with sales of specific lots of an investment, and they'll tel you that missing feature is significantly more important than needing an extra click to review a transaction.)

So even though something seems small and easy to fix, when it will get done depends where it sits in the developers' pile of priorities. Again, I'm not minimizing the annoyance you feel over this issue... I'm just trying to offer some perspective on why things like this aren't done when they may seem like obvious needs. Trust me, I have things that frustrate me that I've been suggesting since the day Quicken 2015 original launched which are yet to be addressed. The one thing we can ALL agree on is wishing there were more developers who could move more quickly to address all our collective enhancement desires.

Unknown

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

I'm sorry, you misunderstood what I wrote and that's my fault for not being clear.

I'm not criticizing your solution -- not at all.  I am criticizing Quicken developers for leaving out such an OBVIOUS -- PLAINLY SCREAMINGLY OBVIOUS feature. Your solution is not absurd at all -- it's perfectly valid -- the absurdity is that such a solution should even need to be suggested in the first place.  

Also I strongly recommended a more convenient review process about a year ago -- so the frustration is not just that it wasn't there in the first place -- it's that they didn't bother to do anything about it after being notified by myself (and others) that this is BAD design.

In all this time, they couldn't find time to add such a rudimentary feature? This new company that took over Quicken was selling themselves as being user-focused and responsive as compared to Intuit who had basically let the software rot on the vine.  So, believing the hype -- I just upgraded to Quicken Mac 2017 since they are boasting about the easier navigation and UI -- AND FIND THEY HAVEN'T FIXED THIS??!  I find it maddening and unbelievably pathetic.

Setting Reviewed Status is a command that many people will use CONSTANTLY, yet they have no keyboard shortcut and force a dance with a mouse or  touchpad.  AND even though there is a ton of empty space on the toolbar below the register -- they also don't have a button for it.... yet they have Print, Duplicate and Delete -- commands that are used a tiny fraction of the time that "Set status to Reviewed" is needed.

They even have a keyboard shortcut for "Add Attachment" --- how often is that one used??? -- but no shortcut for Set Status to Reviewed.  This unbalanced, nonsensical prioritization of commands is the epitome of terrible software design.  

Admittedly, I'm not a programmer -- yet I know plenty about computers and scripting.  I find it extermely hard to believe that it's difficult or time consuming to add a toolbar button and/or a keyboard shortcut.  

Well-designed software should not require much touchpad/mouse input and tedium should be avoided wherever possible.  A feature that is used constantly (setting Review status) should be fast and convenient. Guess how many times I have selected multiple transactions and then slightly misclicked the pad as I try to set them as "Reviewed"  and then destroy the selection and have to do the whole thing over again?  Do the people that design Quicken's interface actually use the software?  Apparently not.

I agree with you that the investment features are poor and need fixing too (I came from Quicken Windows where things were better).  And yes, you are correct, people will use Quicken differently... but is reviewing transactions really that unusual?

When it comes to prioritizing fixes and improvements -- what's easier? -- adding a button and/or a shortcut -- or rewriting the way Quicken records and reports investment transactions?  I think simple, obvious fixes should come before more technical and far-reaching (i.e. complex and potentially stability/accuracy-risking) ones.

RickO

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

@mncdavis... 

I'm the one who suggested Keyboard Maestro. Given your frustration with this issue, I suspect that you also have other functions in other software that you wish were easier/quicker. Given that you are a keyboard oriented user, you seem like a perfect candidate to give KM a try. I'll bet you will find it extremely useful not just for Quicken, but throughout your Mac. (I have no relationship with or financial interest in KM, other than being a very happy customer.)

For example, just for Quicken, I have used KM to set up keyboard shortcuts to (1) select frequently used accounts, (2) do "quick math", (3) reset filters and clear the find field, (4) quickly invoke filters, and of course (5) mark as reviewed.

Having said that, the Quicken developers only need to add the Set Status of Selected Transaction item that is already in the contextual menu to the Transactions menu and then you could assign a keyboard shortcut using macOS's built in keyboard shortcut assignment functionality. I would think that would be a very easy change for them to make. I'll will post this on our SU forum and see if maybe we can get some attention to it for a future release.

Unknown

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

Sorry for misattributing your suggestion...  Yes I've heard KM is excellent and I believe that you are using it to great effect with Quicken.

I am not a "power user" of Quicken however and I just want to be able to swiftly review transactions without having to click -- move the cursor slightly -- and then click again.  I also don't use my Mac for other "high-productivity" purposes so I doubt KM would be much use outside of Quicken for me personally.

I can't fathom spending nearly $40 to plug a hole that shouldn't exist in the first place.  Especially after I just spent $40 upgrading to the latest version "that's easier to use and navigate" which still has the same glaring weakness.  Setting the Review status, is literally probably one of the most frequently used commands.... and they don't have a one-click or one-press way to invoke it. 

As for Mac's built-in keyboard shortcut functionality -- what do you mean?  Are you talking about a way to make custom shortcuts?  Or just a way to invoke menu options using standard Mac keys?

RickO

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

You can make custom keyboard shortcuts for any top-bar menu item in any regular Mac app. See this:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25377?locale=en_US

Unknown

mncdavis said:

ADD a KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!!!!!  You shouldn't have to click twice to review a transaction.  You shouldn't have to Option-click and left click to do multiple transactions at once.  It is suc bad design.  IT IS ABSURD That someone would suggest SPENDING $36 ON A MACRO TOOL TO DO SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATICALLY BUILT IN.
I SUGGESTED THIS A YEAR AGO.  WHERE IS THE UX DESIGN?  How obvious does a feature need to be?????

Thank you.  I didn't know about this. I'm mainly a Windows guy.

thundt

I don't see "toggle Reviewed status" (nor my own pet peeve -- "toggle Cleared/Reconciled status which used to be spacebar in Windows Quicken) in any top menu.  Thus it can't be assigned a shortcut using the feature mentioned above.

One can probably concoct some kind of macro using a third party tool like Karabiner or BetterTouchTool but it's not going to be as reliable as having a built-in shortcut, because it's going to require programming in some kludgey operation like "do this menu command then hit Shift+Tab 3 times and then click", which is going to break next time they change anything in the layout.

It's this sort of sloppy inattention to UX that makes me NOT want to "subscribe" to Quicken 2019.  (That, and the inability to generate balance sheet, cash flow statement, and P&L for my accountant.  You know, the very basics, present from at least Quicken Deluxe 1998 on up.  Really, really sad state of affairs.)