Give us the ability to Rearrange Columns

[email protected]

in the register view

UKR

More details, please.
What exactly are you trying to do?
A limited way of rearranging columns is available in banking account registers in Quicken for Windows. Go to Edit / Preferences / Register to see the options.
You can add or delete columns from the register view by selecting the Register Columns gear icon. For example, if you don't use Tags, delete the Tag column.

You can change the register view and toggle between 1-line and 2-lines-per-transactions modes by pressing CTRL-2

There's currently no way to rearrange columns in the investment register view other than changing between 1- and 2-line modes. To do so go into Edit / Preferences / Investment transactions and change the "List display" option.

[email protected]

Specifically - I would like to be able to move the Cleared column from the right of the Payment column over by the Date column. So that it's a little easier to see when I last reconciled. I also might rather have the Payment and Deposit columns closer to the Payee column. I look for the amount I paid someone more often than the Category, the Tag, or the Memo.

Also, I thought I posted this in the Suggestions thread.

Thanks

smayer97

Yes, this IS in the suggested IDEAs section.

shopthomas13

I am new to Windows 2020 Deluxe from Mac 2020 Deluxe.
I thought I wasn't doing something right because I couldn't move columns either.
Such a simple task....why would the Mac version do something the Windows won't?
I am truly not liking this software now.

smayer97

shopthomas13 said:

I am new to Windows 2020 Deluxe from Mac 2020 Deluxe.
I thought I wasn't doing something right because I couldn't move columns either.
Such a simple task....why would the Mac version do something the Windows won't?

Because QMac is being built from the ground up so they are able to do things differently. That said, that is also one reason why so many other features are still missing from QMac.

apb5309

why can I not move my "memo" column, in my register to show after "categories"

Rocket J Squirrel

apb5309 said:

why can I not move my "memo" column, in my register to show after "categories"

You can. Edit > Preferences > Register, un-check "Show memo before category".

captgpl

I agree with apb5309 on 1/20/21. When we are entering batches of data, the MANDATORY Fields should come first: Date/Check #/Payee/Amount/Category, then followed by the OPTIONAL Fields of Comments and Tag. Not all entries require Comments.

ARandomUser

Why is this even a discussion? With any modern application I think the ability to move columns around via drag-and-drop and arrange in any order that works for you and save the layout is basic functionality.

Chris_QPW

ARandomUser said:

Why is this even a discussion? With any modern application I think the ability to move columns around via drag-and-drop and arrange in any order that works for you and save the layout is basic functionality.

What makes you think that Quicken Windows is a modern application?
Quicken is over 30 years old and it certainly shows it age in certain areas.

The register code is definitely one place where that is.  It a custom set of controls and such that were created many years ago.  I'm sure it is nightmare to work in that area.

This is in fact the area that the Quicken Mac developers called out as "unmaintainable" on Quicken Mac when they started a complete rewrite of Quicken Mac in 2007.

ARandomUser

> @Chris_QPW said:
> What makes you think that Quicken Windows is a modern application?
> Quicken is over 30 years old and it certainly shows it age in certain areas.

Maybe I am giving them too much credit here. We are paying for this thing, they really should spend fewer development cycles on connectivity and integration and more time on the UI and general user experience. It is a grid control, swap it out for a better one and you have taken a big step forward.

jtemplin

ARandomUser said:

We are paying for this thing, they really should spend fewer development cycles on connectivity and integration and more time on the UI and general user experience.

If you spend any time at all in these forums, the biggest gripe users have is connectivity, e.g. "why have downloads from BigHonking Bank stopped working?" Quicken is being admirably responsive to their biggest complaints.

As a career software developer, "it is a grid control, swap it out for a better one" overlooks all the deep tendrils the register has into other parts of the software. Splits, tags, transfers, searching, etc. come immediately to mind. It's stable, and it works. The register is the heart of the system. Personally, I don't blame Quicken at all for not wanting to mess with it. Look at the mess caused by trying to rewrite the Mac version. That tells you all you need to know.

Your suggestion is a "nice to have" not a "must have." 

Chris_QPW

@jtemplin you nailed!  I'm also a software developer (over 40 years), and couldn't agree more.  I think the only thing worst than changing things in the non investment account register, must be changing things in the investment register!  That is even a worse mess.  You will notice that they finally put in the ability to make changes to multiple transactions.  They did it by bringing up a separate window that you check off the transactions you want to change on.  And of course that leads to the question of why they didn't just allow multiple select in the investment register.  And I think the answer is obvious, trying to do that would be next to impossible.  I have looked at those controls in "spy" and they are a whole bunch of separate controls.  It is no wonder they don't do things the "right way" and that area has all kinds of "focus", and performance problems.

For the record Quicken Mac did get the feature of being able to reorder the columns in the register, and select the columns they want displayed.  But that certainly didn't come for free.  Not only do you have all the years of development just to get close to what they had before (in some cases more, but little of that) and still no where near what Quicken Windows Deluxe has, there were other "concessions" made.

There isn't any two line register mode.  There isn't any alternate line coloring.  There isn't any ability to change the fonts.  To add a new transaction you select Command N, because there isn't any blank transaction selection to add the next transaction (this one was called out by the Mac developers as something that caused a lot of the reported bugs because it was "different" than the rest of the register "grid").  Oh and no Downloaded Transactions tab.  They only have "automatic transaction entry mode", where you review the transactions in the register (which I like, but there are tons of long time users that really hate this).

All of these differences are there because the built-in "grid" controls would have to have custom code that basically makes them not "generic" and leads down that same path of having a very complicated, hard to maintain code.

Some of these will most likely get changed as they have time and as the users pressure them, but caving to that pressure isn't always the best thing for the program in the long run.

PatCosWal

I really don't care how hard it is for the developers to give us users (who pay for the developers!) a function that I not only want, but need. I'm regularly exporting registers and reports to Excel so that I can see my data the way I want to see it. Maybe it's time for Quicken to rebuild the Windows version too. Otherwise, someone else will build a more friendly UI and your customers will leave you.

Chris_QPW

PatCosWal said:

I really don't care how hard it is for the developers to give us users (who pay for the developers!) a function that I not only want, but need. 

You don't have to care if something is difficult or not, but the difficult level will certainly play into the possibilities of it happening or not.  And as for paying, every customer is paying, and a lot more of them want other features, than this.  So, your "need" is going to be weighed both against the difficulty and the majority of the users wants/needs, making the request even more unlikely.

PatCosWal said:

Otherwise, someone else will build a more friendly UI and your customers will leave you.

A register that you can move columns around hardly counts as a feature that is going to cause a mass exit of Quicken users.