Register columns with different monitor resolutions

Question

I have a Dell laptop that I use as a laptop, but when I am at either of my 2 offices I have a docking station that allows me to use 2 large external monitors instead of the 15 inch laptop monitor.

My previous laptop had screen resolution of 1920 X 1080.  Both of my dual external monitors at the 2 offices were also 1920 X 1080 so if I was using Quicken on the laptop monitor or the large external monitors the register columns all filled the screen correctly.

My new laptop has a screen resolution of 3840 X 2400 but the external monitors are still 1920 X 1080.  If I set up all the register columns in Quicken just right for the external monitors the next time I use the laptop monitor I have to scroll left and right to see all the columns.  If I set up the columns just right for the laptop when I get to the office and use the external monitors I end up with a lot of empty space on the right side of the registers.  (Since all the columns are on the screen and I do not have to scroll this is obviously the better choice.)  But why can’t it be right whichever setup I am using?  I know Quicken isn’t a part of Intuit anymore but I also use Quickbooks on the same laptop and have the same office setup.  Quickbooks columns are always right whether I am using the laptop monitor or the dual external monitors.

How can I set this up to make this work more like with my old laptop?

Thanks

Charles Reid

Chris_QPW · Answer

Note you might not even be talking about the same problem that this thread was started for.

The original problem is about switching between two different resolutions on different runs of Quicken.

There are two fundamental ways to work with column data.  One is to dynamically size the columns.  The strength of this is that as one moves between different resolutions, they columns resize to fill the space.  The disadvantage of if is the user doesn't have control of the sizes if they for instance want one column to be smaller than the size required to fit all the text in that field.

The other way, is to allow the user to set the exact size of the columns.  This allows the user better control of the sizes, but if you move to a different resolution the column sizes might not be right for that resolution.  Quicken' registers uses the fixed size, and things like the budget use the dynamic approach.

But I suspect you aren't talking about this problem at all, you are talking about that with certain resolutions and windows scaling Quicken doesn't always display things correctly.  And that is a different problem, which @splasher stated, and that is because Quicken is a mix of very old and new APIs/Graphic libraries, and it is really hard to get them all scaling things correctly.

splasher · Answer

Because Quicken's roots are very old and were never built to deal with the high res monitors of today.  It may not be normal, but it is a fact with Quicken.

Josée Sévigny · Answer

@Splasher,  if the monitors support all other software using the desired resolution, why can’t in 2022 Quicken do it too.   I do photography, architectural design and need those high resolution. Yet, in 2022, I have to downgrade my res every time I use Quicken.  Not normal.