Limited view options

wmfitzgibbon

One of the things that kept me with Quicken 2007 for Mac for so long was the appearance of the registers. I just liked having two lines per transaction and alternating blue and white for the transactions. I just moved to Quicken 2020 for Mac after upgrading(?) to Catalina. Why isn’t that one of the view options in Quicken 2020 for Mac?

smayer97

Let's keep the issues separate... 2-line display is NOT the limitation to being able to add, sort, resizing, or otherwise organize information, including having different fields/columns selected for different registers...It all boils down to the implementation.

And this is still a highly requested feature (in top 10)...and for plenty of good reasons:

• can have narrower windows. This enables having more open side by side
• can display more data fields simultaneously
• can display more data fields and still have them wide enough to read the content (e.g. category, tags, memo)
• reduces, or even eliminates, horizontal scrolling

So, you can add your VOTE to Add option for 2-line/row display and even to Ability to Set Default Columns, Sort and Sizes to Account Registers

First, click on each underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THAT feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a moment for your vote to register).

Your VOTES matter!

John_in_NC

While not being able to use a 2 line register is probably not what you wish to hear, use the single line with an open mind as it allows far more flexibility in the ability to show, hide, resize, sort, and rearrange columns to your liking. It is leaps and bounds superior to 2007 in terms of flexibility. Moreover, it is also far easier to scan rows of data with everything in the same spot. I don't know too many people who prefer two line reports.

I think you will grow to like it. 

jacobs

Adding to what John wrote, I think many of us initially missed the two-line display when we were first exposed to the modern Quicken Mac. I did. Now, I much prefer the single-line display of modern Quicken, and find Quicken 2007 harder to scan through when I still need to open it to look for data.  John lists a number of the reasons, and I'd add scrolling through registers is a far superior experience than Quicken 2007, as is the ability to quickly sort a register by any field other than date order, then back again.

You asked why they designed it this way. I can't fully answer for the developers, but I can mention some information the product manager has shared over time. They did it largely because of its flexibility and because a lot of the complexity of lists is handled by built-in frameworks in the modern Mac operating system. That means they don't have to code drawing every field and line on the screen, as was necessary in Quicken 2007. In short: it was faster and easier to develop. But it also opened up the ability to allow users to customize the look of registers by showing and hiding columns, rearranging their order, adjusting their width, and changing sort orders. And it's easier to skim a screen of information with uniform columns of data in every row, versus the old every-other-line design.

So I'm saying that it definitely requires some period of adjustment, but that in the end, I think it end up being superior. I definitely agree that it would be nice if they are able to add a way to (optionally) shade every other row for increased readability, so I'm not saying it's perfect for everyone in its current form. Not everyone agrees, and perhaps some day when they clear the backlog of missing features in the program, they'll go back and design an optional two-line register -- but I wouldn't expect that anytime soon.

chitownhockey

I agree.  I use a two line in Quicken Windows, but I don't miss it one bit in Quicken Mac. 

The flexibility in adding which columns I want per account register is the best part.  I pretty much use a different columns setup in each register...depending on what my personal need is.  

And the spacing between register line items and the font size make it easy to read.  

smayer97

Let's keep the issues separate... 2-line display is NOT the limitation to being able to add, sort, resizing, or otherwise organize information, including having different fields/columns selected for different registers...It all boils down to the implementation.

And this is still a highly requested feature (in top 10)...and for plenty of good reasons:

• can have narrower windows. This enables having more open side by side
• can display more data fields simultaneously
• can display more data fields and still have them wide enough to read the content (e.g. category, tags, memo)
• reduces, or even eliminates, horizontal scrolling

So, you can add your VOTE to Add option for 2-line/row display and even to Ability to Set Default Columns, Sort and Sizes to Account Registers

First, click on each underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THAT feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a moment for your vote to register).

Your VOTES matter!

jacobs

Just to be clear, neither I nor anyone above said a two line register couldn't be developed, nor that it couldn't be built with more complexity than the Quicken 2007 registers. I only said that the product manager has told us that doing so would be a complex development project, and that with other missing features clamoring for development time, I wouldn't expect to see this tackled soon.

All of us above also made the point that while we thought we'd miss the 2-line register when we switched to the modern Quicken, but came to like the current registers better than what we were used to for many years (decades) of the old interface. Most people who switch from Quicken 2007 have an immediate request to re-create the old registers, and that doubtless accounts for many of the votes and comments in the idea thread.

Some people, like me, find that after they use it for awhile, they like the current interface better than the old one. Not everyone does, so of course you can vote for them to re-create a two-line register. (The idea thread is marked as "Under Consideration", so it's something the developers are aware of and are evaluating in terms of how much work it would take and perceived importance versus other feature requests.) All I'm suggesting is for new users to work with the new interface for awhile to see how you like it before having the standard, understandable knee-jerk reaction of wanting things to look like they used to.

I have found that I can set up my registers to show all the fields I need (without horizontal scrolling) even on my 13" laptop, although I do most of my Quicken work on a larger iMac screen where width is not much of an issue. In my opinion, the  strongest argument for a 2-line register is making it more feasible to have two registers open side-by-side. I can do this on my iMac screen with some juggling, but not as easily as with a 2-line display. (I sometimes now open two account windows with one at the top and one at the bottom, rather than side-by-side.)