Seriously, they removed all color from Quicken with the latest update on the Mac?

rrtorrenti

Looks like a first attempt at creating a program
.

rrtorrenti

I just kept working with brightness and contrast and eventually got the sidebar to be a very light shade of blue/gray and shading on alternate lines of transactions. The shading is barely noticeable. After talking with Quicken support, they advised me to send feedback to improve the coloring.

rrtorrenti

Quicken

jacobs

All that's removed is the blue navigation bar across the top.

Highlighted transactions are still blue. The selected account or account group int he left sidebar is still blue.  The separator line between past and future transactions has been changed to green, so it's visible when transactions above and below the line are highlighted. Positive values in the Amount column are still green. So no, all color is not removed.

The developers believe this is more in line with Apple's design of applications in macOS Big Sur.

rrtorrenti

I have those same highlights but where is the shading in the transaction listing and the sidebar. Their interpretation of what Apple would produce couldn't be further from the truth. I still think Quicken now looks like the first attempt of an inexperienced programmer.

jacobs

I guess I'm not understanding. In the transaction register, every other line is shaded in light gray to help visually separate lines. I just opened Quicken 2017 for comparison; it's the same. 

In the sidebar, the account or group you have selected is highlighted in blue. This also hasn't changed for years. (All that changed is that the highlighted account name in blue now has rounded corners which is more the current Apple style, but a very insignificant change.)

They've tweaked the design of icons, as has Apple, but to me that's of no real consequence. I'm looking at a register in Quicken 2017 and in Quicken Mac 6.0, and the only notable difference is that the top navigation is now white and centered instead of a left-aligned blue bar. Personally, I liked the blue bar better than the white, but it's really rather inconsequential in my opinion.

I also miss the app title bar, a change driven by Apple making similar changes in their apps; I miss it because when I want to move a window on the screen, I'm used to grabbing and dragging the top menu bar, and I find I'm often clicking above the man Quicken screen onto some other application window that's behind it. I prefer having the title bar, but assume my brain will adjust to this change over time. 

rrtorrenti

I understand but there is no shading at all on alternating lines of the transactions. Believe me it's all white with no delineation between transactions. It looks like a typed document in Word--no formatting.

jacobs

@rrtorrenti  There definitely is shading on alternate lines in registers and lists:





It may be too light for some users' eyes, but it's there!

rrtorrenti

I know something's wrong with my update. I think I'll call support to see what we can do. Thanks.

jacobs

@rrtorrenti  One thing you can easily try is simply re-downloading the current version from Quicken.com.  Move your current Quicken application from the Applications folder to the Trash (don't empty it!) or your documents folder, then download the Quicken installer from Quicken.com and let it install, and launch it by double-clicking it in the Applications folder. If it works okay, make sure to put the old application in the Trash if you didn't already. (You might need to replace the icon in your Dock as well.) Reinstalling doesn't often solve problems, but it does on occasion, and since it takes just a minute or two to do, it's a pretty painless troubleshooting step.

rrtorrenti

Thanks. I'll give it a shot.

rrtorrenti

No change. Very quick install and nothing changed.

jacobs

And you're not seeing the alternate line shading as shown in my screenshots above? I have no idea what could cause that not to appear on your Mac. Is it an older Mac, or an old macOS? (It's a very long shot, but I'm wondering if there's a graphic card issue for a specific older version of macOS; it's happened a few times in the past.)

rrtorrenti

I'm working with Apple to change display settings. I can now see the shading but it's very light. Thanks.

Barbara O'Keeffe

jacobs,

I look at what you posted and there is no shading of alternate lines on my monitor. So maybe you should tell us what is the required monitor set up. I'm using a MacBook Pro 13" notebook. When I look at registers, the upcoming are greyed, there is a very faint shading for the current line I'm working on, a green (ugly green) bar dividing the future transactions from current(past) ones and that is it!

rrtorrenti

I just kept working with brightness and contrast and eventually got the sidebar to be a very light shade of blue/gray and shading on alternate lines of transactions. The shading is barely noticeable. After talking with Quicken support, they advised me to send feedback to improve the coloring.

jacobs

Barbara O'Keeffe said:

I look at what you posted and there is no shading of alternate lines on my monitor. So maybe you should tell us what is the required monitor set up. I'm using a MacBook Pro 13" notebook.

@Barbara O'Keeffe I use a 21" iMac and a 13" MacBook Pro (2018), and the shading is quite visible to me. I don't have any special settings on my Macs that would affect color or shading on the screen. To me, it's very slightly lighter than the shaded box above quoting your post. It's pretty subtle, and I wouldn't object to it being a little darker, but I wouldn't want it a lot darker or I think it could get distracting. If your screen isn't at or near its maximum brightness, try turning it up (temporarily) to see if that helps you see the shading that's there.

@rrtorrenti  You could create a new Idea thread in the Product Ideas-Quicken Mac > Display/UI (Mac) section requesting they darken the shading of the gray in the alternate rows of register. (Ideally, they could make it user-configurable, since it's obvious from this tread that different graphics card/screens/brightnesses -- and differences in eyesight -- make it hard to achieve one color that everyone will be completely happy with.) The more people who vote for the idea, the more likely it is for the developers to consider it.

rrtorrenti

On my Mac, the vague shading is there. It's when you are using an external monitor that the shading is barely visible. Remember when we used to be able to make our own adjustments. Seems these days you pay more and get less.

jacobs

rrtorrenti said:

On my Mac, the vague shading is there. It's when you are using an external monitor that the shading is barely visible. Seems these days you pay more and get less.

Are you talking about Quicken or your external monitor?  

rrtorrenti

Quicken

Barbara O'Keeffe

On the 13" MacBook Pro I can barely see the shading ONLY if I turn on "True Tone" which then gives a tan-pink background! It is not pleasant, so it is turned off on my computer. I also have the brightness turned down to save battery life and because I've had cataract surgery. I realize that everything Quicken does is focused on under 30s, but you might be surprised to learn that some of us are older (and have some disposable income left) and use your product.

jacobs

@Barbara O'Keeffe When you post here, you're talking mostly to fellow Quicken users, plus a few Quicken moderators -- but definitely not Quicken product management!

As for age demographics, the Quicken folks are aware that the majority of Quicken users are, in fact, older users. So their challenge is adding what they think will compete to attract younger users without alienating their core base of older users. In fact, that's why they came out with their online-only Simpfli service earlier this year -- competing against their own core Quicken software in order to compete against Mint and other online services that younger people new to personal finance software seem to prefer. 

rrtorrenti

After all these years Quicken still hasn't made a change, which seems quite simple to implement.