Quirky Quicken (2007 for Mac)

fizzylogic

Coming back to this forum after a long absence, I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one still clinging stubbornly to Quicken 2007 for Mac to manage my financial life. The likelihood seems to be around 99.999% that there will be no further updates, enhancements, or bug fixes to this old version, so I'm starting this thread to give us a place to collect and discuss some of the long-standing, never-to-be corrected quirks or bugs that still exist in the software.

The most common one I've experienced resides in the "reporting" module. I have around 60 memorized reports and there are about a dozen that I generate each year at tax time. I always "print" these to PDF so they are preserved along with my other tax docs, but I send some to the printer, as well.

In either case, many of these require clicking the "Shrink wide pages to fit" box at the top of the report to prevent part or all of the rightmost column(s) from being cut off. As often as not, clicking this checkbox produces the message, "Unable to fit report to one page wide." It happens with both portrait and landscape oriented reports, and with both memorized and QuickReports.

In searching the forum, I can't find where anyone else has raised this particular issue but fortunately, the fix is simple--just select File/Page Setup and change "Scale" from 100% to 99%. Now, when the "Shrink" box is checked, the report will be properly scaled to fit the page, whether it needs to be reduced to 67%, 84%, or some other odd size.

I've been dealing with this for so long that it's become an automatic part of my workflow. I can't even remember if it's always been this way, or if it crept in with an update or a newer version of Quicken. My data file goes all the way back to Quicken 4, which came with my 1994-vintage Performa 637CD "Money Magazine Edition" (from Sears, Roebuck!) running System 7. I do know for sure that I've seen this behavior at least as far back as Quicken 2006 on my G5 iMac running Tiger and Leopard. (I'm currently on Q7M ver. 16.2.4 running on an Intel High Sierra iMac.)

So, is it just me, or do other QM7 users also experience the same issue when trying to shrink reports? How about other such idiosyncrasies? Please feel free to describe your examples here, along with any successful workaround(s). The rest of us can check to see if they are repeatable on our own systems.

smayer97

I use this feature occasionally but not in a while. I do not recall it being a significant problem in the past though I do recall having minor issues with it but none that I can recall and stand out. Could it be a factor related to the printer driver you are using?

fizzylogic

> @smayer97 said:
> Could it be a factor related to the printer driver you are using?

Well, I have a few different printers, including USB-connected inkjets on two different Macs and a Bonjour-connected laser shared by multiple Macs. Regardless, Print Setup always defaults to "Format For: Any Printer," so I generally haven't been in the habit of selecting a particular one, especially since I print most reports to PDF. I'll play with it next time I print one out and see what happens.

smayer97

BTW, here are some quirks I have identified over the years:

Reports - max Description/Title = 39 Characters:

• If you use all 39 characters, memorized report MAY freeze Quicken on 1st run
• Quicken WILL freeze if you try to change the date range either before or after generating report
• Quicken WILL freeze if you try to update any record while the report is open
• For SUMMARY type reports and use > 29 characters, when you drill down more than one report line, Quicken will overwrite the 1st drill down report instead of opening additional windows and jumble the content. If you try to close this jumbled drill down report, Quicken will crash. This is because the title of the drill down report is modified and is now greater than 39 chars, so Quicken gets confused.
• also, in this drill down situation, if try to update any transaction, Quicken will freeze.

Solution to both of these... for summary type reports, always use < 29 chars, and for all other reports, use < 39 chars.

Scrolling

• using mouse wheel to scroll down in register window moves line by line when you reach the bottom but scrolling up moves page by page when you reach the top.
• Some windows are not scrollable with the mouse wheel. Have to use the scrollbar, e.g. Scheduled Transactions.

Scheduled Transactions - temperamental if set as "varies" and contains transfers, then try to edit it while trying to apply it. Quicken will often crash.

Smart Payees - If description is > 39 chars, the smart payee will save but will be deleted from Quicken without any warning when you quit.

QIF Import limitations -  skips transactions with splits & transfers together.

QFX file name must be ≤ 32 Chars or Quicken gives unrelated and meaningless error message during import.

File limitations (some have been mentioned in other threads):

(https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7890354/quicken-for-mac-2007-file-limits)

• max number of total transactions in the data file is approx 65,535 (2^16-1)
• max number of securities is 2000
• max number of quotes per security is 3275
• Only DISPLAYS first 50 active investment accounts - work-around--Use Save As, saving WITHOUT first 50 visible accounts

fizzylogic

@smayer97 Thanks for taking the time to document these! A couple of comments...

Reports:
I probably lucked out here, as I always try to keep my report titles short and have never encountered any of these issues.

Scrolling:
Register scrolling is indeed quirky, but I've gotten so used to it that I don't give it much thought, except when I lose my place while trying to get to a specific transaction.

Some windows are not scrollable with the mouse wheel.
Also unscrollable: Investment module > Security Detail > Prices & Transactions

Scheduled Transactions: I apparently dodged this bullet, also. I've had a number of scheduled transactions over the years that contain splits/transfers, but the amount didn't vary (paycheck deposits, mortgage payments). While many of my "varies" transactions contain splits, none of these include transfers.

Smart Payees:
Never used

QIF Import limitations:
What are some examples of this? I never had occasion to import a QIF until the recent issue with downloading quotes.

QFX file name:
Again, never used. Is this capability still usable, since Quicken eliminated the ability to download transactions in Q7M?

fizzylogic

I played around a bit more with "Shrink wide pages to fit," using a memorized report that refuses to shrink when the box is clicked. By going into Page Setup and leaving the default at "Format For: Any Printer," changing scale to 99%, then clicking shrink again, the report rescales itself to 78%. I then repeated the exercise, closing and reopening the report, and selecting each of my available printers in turn. In each case, upon closing Page Setup, I was able to check the shrink box without having to change Scale from 100%. Checking the shrink box would rescale the report to the same 78%, regardless of which printer is selected.

So, the moral of the story is, there are a couple of different ways to get a stubborn report to shrink in Q7M, but it still requires a trip to the Page Setup menu (unless someone has a better workaround).