Update Quicken for Mac to include all capabilities of Q for Mac 2007

Debbys_21

I am still using Quicken for Mac 2007 because the current version doesn't have all the capabilities of that version. For starters, the "old fashioned" 2-line register entries were easier to read quickly, especially since they had alternating colored and white entries. Different types of accounts used different colors. Now everything is white. Also missing is automatically opening a new transaction line with the date that was last used. I haven't tried all types of accounts to see what's missing from them in this version, but keeping all past capabilities is more important to me than adding new ones. From my point of view, Quicken has gone backwards. After Quicken brings itself forward to the past, then it's time to consider new features.

jacobs

@Debbys_21 The developers will never simply make modern Quicken exactly like the Quicken of two decades ago. But they are receptive to specific features which customers find are needed, or things from Quicken 2007 which can't be done, or done easily, in the current Quicken Mac.

Debbys_21 said:

For starters, the "old fashioned" 2-line register entries were easier to read quickly, especially since they had alternating colored and white entries.

Actually, alternating lines are shaded to aid readability. It's a light gray instead of a color, but it does make it easier to scan a page of entries with every other row shaded.

As for readability, I guess it's a matter of personal taste. I will say that I, along with many Quicken Mac users who migrated from the venerable Quicken 2007, had an immediate knew-jerk reaction that the one-line register wasn't good and I wanted my two-line register back. No one embraces change! But after I used Quicken Mac for awhile, I found a number of things I really liked in the current registers compared to Quicken 2007. The ability to customize which columns are visible or not is very helpful, along with the ability to customize the column order and column width. the smooth scrolling through transactions, rather than the jerky screen-by-screen scrolling in Quicken 2007 is a huge improvement. And after I got used to it for awhile, I realized that the single line register with every column uninterrupted by alternating lines of different columns actually made it easier on my eyes and faster to scan for something I was looking for. Not every Quicken Mac user will agree; I'm just giving you my point of view.

My advice if/when you switch to Quicken Mac is to give it a shot and not hold onto the old ways we were all used to for so long. There is some muscle memory it takes a while to unlearn, and some brain-hand-eye coordination it takes a while to retrain. Some things are different in Quicken Mac now, but many of them are not worse -- just different. Some are better. And some features are still lacking. On the whole, I think the vast majority of former Quicken 2007 users have found Quicken Mac a reasonable replacement for the old program. 

Debbys_21 said:

Different types of accounts used different colors. Now everything is white.

That's true. It's a feature users have asked them to change. You can add your vote in this thread.

Debbys_21 said:

Also missing is automatically opening a new transaction line with the date that was last used.

There are technical and practical reasons why they changed this, but it's not really an obstacle when you get used to it. Command-N opens a new transaction. If you're entering multiple transactions, you can save one and open a new one in a single step with command-N -- no more keys than you're used to pressing to save a transaction.

The date of the next transaction defaults to the date of the one you just entered.

Debbys_21 said:

I haven't tried all types of accounts to see what's missing from them in this version, but keeping all past capabilities is more important to me than adding new ones. From my point of view, Quicken has gone backwards.

You say they went backwards, but you haven't fully tried to new program to see what it can (or can't do)?

As I wrote at the top, the engineers and product managers will ignore simplistic calls to "make it exactly like Quicken 2007", but they will and consistently do add specific features users say are missing. As you probably know, they had no choice but to start from scratch with Quicken Mac because the technology used for Quicken 2007 couldn't be updated to work with the modern macOS. They've been working at it steadily for the past 7 years, and little by little, modern Quicken Mac has become ever-more capable. I experimented with it for more than six years before I finally made the switch last year after determining that the current program met my needs reasonably well.

Yes, there are some missing features I long for (QuickMath, anyone? ), but I've found I can work well with the current program. The developers have a long list of hundreds of features and enhancements users have asked for, and I'm sure it will take years for them to work their way through the list; they can't please everyone right away, but over time, new features appeal to the wishes of different users. 

One of the reasons I finally switched off Quicken 2007 was that I kept bumping into the capacity limit of the transaction file and needing to delete things from my current data file. And the periodic crashes of the old and quirky database made me worry about corruption I wouldn't notice until much later. (I had one corruption incident which wiped out a chunk of data that I didn't discover until it was too late to do anything about it; fortunately it was in an account of lesser importance.) I can't tell you how happy I am to have my decades of data in a modern database which is not prone to such crashes and data corruption. 

You can stick with Quicken 2007 as long as you don't need to update your macOS beyond Mojave or replace your Mac, and even then, you can go to extraordinary lengths of installing virtual machine software and an older Mac operating system in order to install and run Quicken 2007 even longer. But if you haven't tried working with modern Quicken Mac for awhile to see if there are any truly showstopper issues which make it unsuitable for you, you may be short-changing its capabilities to be a viable replacement for good ol' Quicken 2007. 

Hope this is of some help.

Jon

Debbys_21 said:

Also missing is automatically opening a new transaction line with the date that was last used.

Quicken does this, but it's per account. If I enter a transaction & set its date to, oh let's say two days ago, then the next transaction I enter in that account will also be dated two days ago. But if I switch to a different account, the date resets to today. And if I go back to the first account, the date goes back to two days ago.

As for your other complaints, it's probably better to think of specific missing features (like the two-line register) and then vote for them in the Product Ideas forum. A blanket demand that Quicken roll back the clock to 2007 isn't going to go anywhere.