Allow narrower windows (Why are the Q Mac register windows so huge?) (+7 Merged Votes)

guitarian

Please allow narrower windows to only show selected columns.

I recently had to buy Quicken 2019 (after using 2007 until it was no longer supported). I have quite a few complaints, but my main question is Why can't I shrink the register window?
It takes up over half of my screen for no reason. I only use 7 columns but instead of making the window smaller, the register just shows about 30% white screen (wasted space) on the right side of the window. If I adjust or even remove the accounts bar, it simply slides the columns to the left and creates even more blank/wasted space. Quicken 2007 also limited the amount you could shrink the register windows, but they were about half the size.
Is there something I'm missing (besides about half of my screen)?
Thanks

Richard Holub

I have discussed this matter in the past with members on this board.  My Quicken program takes up about 2/3 of my MacBook Pro screen and it makes it difficult to keep my online bank account window visible at the same time.  I was hoping that some technician could make it so that the user (me) could adjust the size.  Other uses would also benefit :-)

RickO

I'm guessing you're using a 13" MBP? On my 15" MBP, I can shrink it down to about 1/2 the screen width and height.

Here's one trick... open the register in its own window by double clicking in the sidebar. Then close the main window. The register-only window can be sized smaller than the main window.

jacobs

Also, with the latest version 5.11 update to Quicken 2019, you can now adjust font size in addition to row spacing in your register -- so if you can tolerate smaller text, you can make the text smaller and narrow your columns in order to shrink your overall window size.

RickO

@jacobs
I think the OP's issue is that no matter how few columns or how small the font, Quicken will only allow a certain minimum pixel width for the windows.

jacobs

Well, without a complete redesign of the user interface of Quicken -- which isn't about to happen -- about all that can be done is trying to make things as compact as possible to maximize the available screen real estate.

I use Quicken mainly on an iMac with a large screen, but I do do testing on a 13" MacBook Pro. And I find I am able to reduce the size of the window so I can see it and something else (like this forum), at the same time. You don't get to see a lot of transactions at once, but it's workable.

RickO

Like any Mac window, move your cursor over to the right edge until it turns into a left/right arrow, then drag the right edge to the left, shrinking the window.

guitarian

Hi RickO,
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, like any Mac window, the size should be changed by the cursor in the lower right corner. Unfortunately, Quicken (for Mac, at least) limits the smallest size to over half of the screen width and over half of the screen height.
The double-arrow cursor becomes a single arrow cursor and I am stuck with way too much empty, unused space taking up real estate on my screen.
Thanks, Guitarian

RickO

I see. Yes, I concur that the min width is just over 1/2 screen width. I'm not sure why they limit it this way, but I don't think it comes up very often because people usually have more or wider columns. You do seem to have very short payee names and memo contents.

That said, the only suggestion I have is to double click a register in the sidebar (to open it in its own window), then hide the main window. The single register windows can be made somewhat narrower than the main window (although still run into a limit at about 7/16th screen width.

guitarian

I did not know one could do that. Great suggestion. Not a perfect solution but certainly reduces size.
Thanks RickO!

smayer97

I have turned this into an IDEA thread so others can also vote on it. 

guitarian

I recently updated to Version 5.12.3. Today I clicked on the lower right corner of the account page and the window grew about 2 more inches!
I didn't even try to move the cursor but as soon as I clicked, it showed only the sizing arrow to increase size and would not let me shrink the screen back to the smaller size.
WHY do the windows have to be so large, and now even larger?

guitarian

I recovered Q using my 8/1 backup file. The screen was originally the older size, but when I repeated my previous action of clicking on the lower right corner, the window lengthened by about 15%.
I then reverted back to my saved 9/1 file. The window is back to its "normal" size, so I suppose I just have to make sure I don't let my cursor get too close to the sizing arrows.
But I'll be a PItA and ask again, why do the windows have to be so damn large?

Ben Michaud

Especially after the last major release of Quicken for Mac, I can't reduce the size of the main Quicken window, even after I close the accounts left navigation bar. I want to be able to have both Quicken and my web browser or other window on the right of it and be able to see the figures in both, but I can't make the size of the overall window smaller.

Quicken Premier 2019: Version 5.12.3 (Build 512.29258.100)
macOS 10.14.6

jacobs

@Ben Michaud you are not alone. See this thread on the same topic -- and you should vote on that page. (Find the blue voting box after the first post, the click the little gray arrow under the vote counter and you should see the count go up.)

Ben Michaud

Thanks @jacobs I voted and the count went up to a whopping 3. In the meantime, I guess I shuffle windows around.

jacobs

@Ben Michaud I think the vote total might grow; they made some change in the latest upgrade that increased the minimum size of the window.

szzz

add me to the 'disgust' column on this issue
macbook 12" qmac user since 2017, operated
without screen grab that ver 15.3 brought quite
well, now I've lost ability to resize smaller than
9/10ths of screen display of 12-inch (2304 x 1440)

other software will allow resizing to half screen
width wise, safari, firefox, word, excel, music &
photos seem the have limits but still only take
~6/10ths of screen, meaning useful area to see
other open apps at same time!

this is a deal breaker for me, likely will move on
to other solutions if it's not addressed!

jacobs

@szzz Did you vote? Your comments are fine, but what really help is VOTES. Under the first post above, there's a big blue box for voting and status of an Idea thread; click the little gray triangle under the vote counter, and you should see the vote go up by oe and the arrow turn from gray to black.

wcline

I voted. It's frustrating to reduce the font and column size to the point of near illegibility while being unable to reduce the wasted white space on the right.
Poor design.

jmine83

I want a percentage of credit used across all credit cards to be displayed in the title header area. Since each credit card account already supports a "Credit Limit" field, this shouldn't be that hard to implement.

This is for monitoring how close I might be to the 30% mark that it's said credit reporting agencies look at that influences credit score.

For example, so if I'm below 20%, the 20% figure would be displayed in green to indicate an acceptably safe percentage of credit utilized. If between 20% and 30%, then maybe display that figure as yellow text to indicate warning. And if 30% or above, display it in red to indicate the user is in the danger zone.

Barbara O'Keeffe

I detest the limitations on the size of the window that we are forced to use. If you have a big screen, not a problem, but when you are on a smaller laptop and want to be able to enter into Quicken items you have purchased from confirmation received via email, or a website, etc., then it is almost impossible without having to flip back and forth.

jacobs

It's not a complete solution to this issue, but if you open an account in a separate window -- double-click on the account name in the sidebar -- the window can be made smaller than the main Quicken window. On a 13" laptop, it can be reduced to about 40% of the total screen area, which makes it possible to view windows from other apps on the side and/or below the Quicken window.

Barbara O'Keeffe

I run a Current Month report and 1/2 of the window is empty because I can't reduce the width size of the individual window. So I'm taking up a lot of space on the screen for nothing. Why can't I control the size of a window?

smayer97

See no reason why this was limited and even increased. Let users do what they feel they need to do... no imposing some artificial constraints.

jacobs

smayer97 said:

See no reason why this was limited and even increased. Let users do what they feel they need to do... no imposing some artificial constraints.

According to the product manager, this is due to added interface elements on the various screens, and the need to keep them from colliding/overlapping/disappearing. It would likely take some work to re-do multiple screen layouts to allow them to become narrower. I'm not saying that wouldn't be a good thing; I'm just saying it wasn't an arbitrary things and would likely require a bit of work to make happen. As with most Quicken idea requests, it's all a matter of which ones should be higher priorities.

smayer97

You take things too literally. But thanks.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

This idea seems to have fallen stagnant and due to the age of the request and lack of user votes/comments, will be archived within the next 7 business days.

If you would like to see this idea kept alive and considered for possible future implementation in Quicken, be sure to add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you.

More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

jacobs

@Quicken Anja Even though this topic hasn't received votes, this issue is still something Quicken Mac users grumble about in various threads, so it definitely should not be archived. However, there is a different thread asking for the same thing, so perhaps they can be merged together and the vote count updated on the other thread. Thanks.

Quicken Anja

@Jacobs I went ahead and merged the ideas and have updated the vote count in the title. 

Thank you!

Barbara O'Keeffe

Please allow us to make more size adjustments on the window. When you have a 13" laptop, and want to have more than just Quicken open so you can additions (I get notified of all purchases to any credit card by check), it would be helpful to be able to have the ability to decrease number of lines in the register for any account to just 3-4 lines. Same for the width, especially for some of the reports that do not allow one to adjust the width of the columns. Again, not everyone has big screens to look at!