Changing the right-most column width

Greg Feneis mfeneis at gmail.com
Wed Nov 30 19:17:51 EST 2016


Hi Folks,

Just thought I'd join in on the column width fun.  Win 7-64, 2.6.14, (twin
27" monitors side by side, RH monitor is monitor 1 in Windows, in case any
of that has anything to do with it).



Here's what I found out (summary):

If the Balance column is wider than the widest item in the column (Wider
than the word Balance, and wider than any of the figures in the column), I
can't manually adjust the Balance column narrower (Hover, width adjust
cursor appears, I drag left, doesn't seem to do anything).  I can, however,
double click the Balance column header, and the Balance column width
reduces to the widest item in the column.

Only once did I manage to find the Balance column narrower than items in
the column (It reduced to the width of of the word Balance, which was
narrower than the figures in the column), and it seemed stuck like that
(Double clicking did nothing, and could not get width adj. cursor to
appear) until I fiddled with the width of another column, then it seemed to
self correct (as if the Balance column header had been double clicked).

To manually adjust the Balance column wider, reduce the width of the main
window and position the right edge of the main window away from the right
edge of the monitor an inch or two. Hover over the right edge of the
Balance column header until the width adjustment cursor appears, then drag
to the right, well past the edge of the main window.  Doing so will cause 2
things.  1, An unnamed column will form to the right of the Balance column,
and 2, a horizontal scroll bar will appear near the bottom of the main
window.  Use the H scroll bar to shift the columns left, which will reveal
the right edge of the Balance column, and the entirety of the unnamed
column.  Hover over the right edge of the Balance column header and when
the width adjust cursor appears, drag to the right to widen the Balance
column as far as you like.  This widens the balance column and causes the
unnamed column to disappear.  Once this is done, you may double click the
Description column header and its width will auto adjust so all of the
columns fit within the width of the window, and the H scroll bar
disappears. (Or, if you have side by side monitors, you can widen the main
window until the H scroll bar disappears, then reduce the width of the main
window to your liking (Description column will self adjust as your reduce
the width of the window).

You can manually adjust the Balance column wider with the main window
maximized.  It's just a little more fiddly.  Do as above, only when
widening things, you only have the width of the vertical scroll bar to work
with.  You'll have to go through a few iterations of widening the unnamed
column, then using the H scroll bar to shift the columns left, then widen
the unnamed column more.  Widen the unnamed column to be as wide as the
width you'd like to add to the Balance column, then adjust the balance
column to take up the width of the unnamed column(the Balance column width
increases as the unnamed column disappears).  Then double click the
Description column header to auto adjust its width and the H scroll bar
disappears.





User experience notes:

(Main window at maximum size, in the RH monitor) When I first opened the
checking Account register, I hovered over the right edge of the Balance
column header and got the width adjust cursor (WAC), and I tried to make
the column narrower.  It didn't seem to change.  I double clicked the
Balance header and the column got a tiny bit wider (appearing to match the
width of the column figures and substantially wider than the word
Balance).  I then tried hovering over the right edge of the Balance column
header and couldn't get the WAC to appear no matter how patient and
careful.  I then tried to get the WAC to appear for the right edge of the
Withdrawal column header and it did, and I successfully made it too narrow
(Narrower than the figures and narrower than the word Withdrawal).  Then I
double clicked the Withdrawal column header and it widened to the width of
the word Withdrawal (the widest object in the column), (as this user
expects it should).

I then turned my attention back to the Balance column and it appeared that
at some point while messing with the Withdrawal column width, the Balance
column width had become narrower.  The Balance column width reduced to the
width of the word Balance in the header.  At this point, the Balance column
width is wide enough to show the word Balance at the header, but not wide
enough to correctly show the figures in the column.  It seems like double
clicking the Withdrawal column header widened the Withdrawal column to the
width of the column's header, and also narrowed the width of the Balance
column to the width of its header (instead of the width of the figures in
the Balance column).

Now, at this point, when I hover over the right edge of the Balance column
header and try to get the WAC to appear, it won't appear no matter how
patiently and carefully I try.  And, since the Balance column is now
narrower than the figures in the Balance column, I should be able to double
click on the Balance column header and have it widen appropriately (at
least that's what this user expects), but it does not respond to double
clicks.

​Experimentally, I then double clicked on the Deposit column, and it
narrowed a tiny bit to match the width of some figures in the Deposit
column that are wider than the word Deposit in the header.

When I double clicked the Deposit column header, it also had the effect of
correcting the width of the Balance column.  The Balance column is now well
wider than the word Balance, and the figures in the Balance column are
entirely viewable.  ​And, when I hover over the right edge of the balance
column header, I can get the WAC to appear.  However, when I try to adjust
the width of the Balance column to be narrower, dragging the WAC, it
doesn't seem to change.

​From here, I clicked the restore down button (reduces main window size
from maximum, window is now nearly the same size as maximum in the right
monitor, but I can move it around), and repositioned the window left about
1" (window now occupying 1" of the left monitor and all but 1" of the right
monitor).   I can hover over the right edge of the Balance column header
and get the WAC to appear, and dragged the WAC to the right of the window
edge so as to widen the Balance column.  While the other columns didn't
shift left to accommodate the increasing width of the Balance column, I did
notice the horizontal scroll bar appears, and reduces in length as I drag
(indicating the size of the entirety of the columns has increase (a subtle
change that might be missed by some users, I almost did).  I clicked on and
dragged the horizontal scroll bar to the right (to shift the columns to the
left), and found an entirely new column to the right of the Balance
column(!)  This new column has no header name, and for each transaction,
there is "1" in the field (see attached screenshot with appropriate file
name).

Next, I double clicked the Description column, thinking it would adjust its
width to maximize the horizontal scroll bar (let all columns appear between
the edges of the window, eliminating the need to scroll).   Doing this
caused the unnamed column to the right of the Balance column to disappear,
and also got all of the columns to fit within the width of the window again
(H scroll bar disappeared).

Next, I tried adjusting the Balance column width wider again.  WAC
appeared, and I dragged it to the right, and the horizontal scroll bar
appeared and changed as I dragged, etc. just as before.  I scrolled right
to see what was to the right of the Balance column again.  Same unnamed new
column with "1" for each transaction.  At this point, with the new unnamed
column there (seeming to act as a buffer so that the balance column isn't
the column against the window edge), I tried to adjust the width of the
Balance column wider.  This had the effect of widening the Balance column
and causing the unnamed column to disappear.

Now Balance column is wider (as desired), unnamed column has
vanished(desired), but the width of all columns is wider than the window's
width, so a horizontal scroll bar remains (workable, but not desired).  I
double clicked the Description column header, and it appears to have let
the balance column remain wide as set, and the horizontal scroll bar
disappeared (as desired), so now all columns fit in the width of the window
and the other columns besides Description column appear unchanged in width
(yay!), so I imagine the Description column width self adjusted as it
should have to get the width of all the columns to fit within the width of
the window.

So, the above two paragraphs seem to give me a way to widen the Balance
column - At least there's a way...

Now the balance column is wider than I'd like.  That is, the Balance column
is wider than the word Balance in the column header, it's also wider than
the figures in the column.  So, I'll try to reduce its width.  I hovered
over the right edge of the Balance column header and the WAC appeared and I
dragged it left.  Balance column did not appear to change in width (width
did not reduce).  I let go of the left mouse button, and the WAC remained,
I moved the mouse slightly and the normal cursor returns (WAC disappears).
So manually adjusting the balance column to reduce its width doesn't seem
to work.  I double clicked on the Balance column header, and the Balance
column width reduced to the width of the widest item in the column (well
wider than the word Balance, and only wide enough to show the widest figure
in the column).
If the balance column is wider than any of the column's items, appears I
can't drag the Balance column width to reduce its width (WAC appears and I
can drag the WAC, but it doesn't do anything). I can only double click the
Balance column header, and the width is automatically reduced to the width
of the widest item in the column.

Maximized the main window in the RH monitor.  Tried adjusting the Balance
column width wider (only have the width of the vertical scroll bar to work
with), and it appears to work.  That is, the horizontal scroll bar appears
and there is a tiny gap to the right of the horizontal scroll bar.  I
shifted the columns to the left using the H scroll bar.  This reveals the
right boarder of the Balance column, and a tiny bit of the unnamed column
to the right of the Balance column.   I widened the unnamed column some
more, which narrows the H scroll bar and lets me shift the columns to the
left again, revealing more of the unnamed column.   Next, I adjusted the
width of the Balance column wider, and the Balance column widened to cover
the unnamed column, and the unnamed column disappeared.  Next, I double
clicked the Description column and the H scroll bar disappeared and the
Balance column width appeared unchanged.  Now all columns fit within the
width of the window.

I tried manually reducing the Balance column width.  Just as before, the
WAC appears, but the Balance column width does not change.  I double
clicked the Balance column header and the Balance column width reduced to
the width of the widest item in the column.

That's all, Folks.






Kind regards,

Greg Feneis
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