[GNC] Resizing columns

sunfish62 at yahoo.com sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 5 10:34:37 EST 2025


Did you in fact click and drag the right side of the Description column to the left and then release?

Are you looking at the *Guide* for section 2.3.5? Did you click the link i provided?

⁣David T.​

On Nov 5, 2025, 7:46 PM, at 7:46 PM, Paul Kinzelman <paulkinzelman at gmail.com> wrote:
>On 11/4/2025 10:00 PM, sunfish62 at yahoo.com wrote:
>> Keep the replies on the list, please.
>Sorry, it looked like you replied to just me so I replied thusly too.
>>
>> 2.3.5 is at 
>>
>https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/basics-running-gnucash.html#basics-register2
>>
>> First question: why are you double clicking the Withdrawal column to 
>> resize the Balance column?
>I'm just trying various things to figure out how the column sizing
>works.
>Your hint about clicking on the column header from right to left is
>very helpful and not at all obvious to me. I was just completely
>confused.
>>
>> Second: Doesn't your screen have a scroll bar along the bottom of the
>
>> register window?
>Yes. Duh! That was dumb of me. So I can see the rest of the balance,
>but 
>then when I scroll right,
>I lose part of the date even as the Description is huge so there's no 
>reason to lose anything.
>The Description column is not being shrunk.
>>
>> Third: Others have noted that resizing columns works best from right 
>> to left: double click the balance heading, followed by Withdrawal, 
>> Deposit, etc. The final step is to grab the *right* edge of the 
>> Description column and drag it fully to the left and release. The 
>> Description column will then fill up the remainder of the window 
>> width. (For the record, the Note does describe this process, just a 
>> little cryptically).
>When I do that, I get reasonable sizes for each column from Transfer to
>
>Balance, but it doesn't
>shrink the Description to fit the window so I get a scroll bar and have
>
>to move around. If I maximize
>the window then I do get all the columns displayed without a scrollbar.
>Thank you. But I still can't shrink the window less than the entire 
>screen without losing the end
>columns and getting a scroll bar. It should shrink the Description to 
>fit according to your directions.
>But what you told me does help, thanks!
>It does seem like it'd be easier and much less confusing to just have
>users
>move the columns where they want and have them stay put.
>
>And about documentation...
>How do I get to 2.3.5?
>Again, when I go to Support | Documentation | Table of Contents | 2
>it goes to only 2.2 and when I go thru the pages of chapter 2, I get: 
>2 
>| Next | 2.1 | Next | 2.2 | Next 3.1
>
>And when I go to Downloads | Documentation I don't get anything to 
>download, it goes to the
>same place as Support | Documentation
>
>>
>> David T.
>> On Nov 5, 2025, at 9:46 AM, Paul Kinzelman <paulkinzelman at gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     I can't find 2.3.5
>>     Going to the documentation either download or support, I can't
>>     download, all I can do
>>     is page by page and Ch 2 ends at 2.2 and when I go Next, it goes
>>     to chapter 3.
>>     What am I doing wrong?
>>
>>     I tried your note but the windows still act weirdly.
>>
>>     With even almost the whole screen width
>>     (and also even with the window maximized),
>>     I see only 1/2 the balance column.
>>     Then when I double-click the Withdrawal,
>>     that column gets wide enough, but it shrinks the Balance so I see
>>     only 1/2 of the column. When I click on Balance, I now see the
>whole
>>     thing only if the window is maximized. If I shrink
>>     the gnucash window to be less than maximize,
>>     I lose 1/2 the Balance column. I can see it trying to expand
>>     automatically
>>     like you said in your reply,
>>     but it's really not doing the right thing if the window isn't
>>     maximized.
>>
>>     Why not just allow the user to move the columns around wherever
>>     they want? Wouldn't it be more intuitive as well as
>>     the code would be a lot easier to write too?
>>
>>     I like to balance my statement against gnucash and display them
>both
>>     on the laptop screen so I can't really maximize it.
>>
>>     Thanks for your help!
>>
>>     On 11/4/2025 8:10 PM, sunfish62 at yahoo.com wrote:
>>>     Apparently, you didn't read 2.3.5, which includes the following
>>>     note:
>>>
>>>     Note
>>>     In the register windows, you can resize the various columns that
>>>     GnuCash displays, but keep in mind that the Description and
>>>     Balance columns behave differently from other columns.
>>>
>>>     The Description column is designed to expand automatically to
>>>     fill all unused horizontal screen space. Therefore you should
>set
>>>     the widths of all your other columns before setting the
>>>     Description column width.
>>>
>>>     The Balance column must be resized by double-clicking on the
>>>     column heading.
>>>
>>>     David T.
>>>     On Nov 5, 2025, at 4:44 AM, Paul Kinzelman
>>>     <paulkinzelman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>         Sunfish62: I looked in chapter 2 and it's about"Using this
>>>         Document & Getting Help"
>>>         I didn't see any column sizing stuff in there.
>>>         Chapter 4.3 seemed more relevant but I couldn't find
>anything
>>>         there either.
>>>
>>>         David: Double-click enlarges the column which is good and
>>>         shrinks the Description
>>>         but still when I drag the vertical bar on the left of
>>>         "Transfer" to the left it snaps back to where it was.
>>>         When I drag the vertical bar on the right of "Transfer" it
>>>         stays put, but the
>>>         vertical bar on the left of "Transfer" snaps to the right
>>>         also when it shouldn't move.
>>>         Something is very weird about resizing.
>>>
>>>         On 11/4/2025 9:31 AM, David Carlson wrote:
>>>>         What happens if you double click the title of any of the
>>>>         amount columns?
>>>>
>>>>         On Tue, Nov 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM Paul Kinzelman
>>>>         <paul at kinzelman.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>             Im running the updated 5.13 release but it happened
>with
>>>>             older ones too.
>>>>
>>>>             I can't get the ledger columns to resize properly.
>Works
>>>>             the same way
>>>>             with both one and Double Line view.
>>>>
>>>>             The Description field is huge, and when I try to drag
>>>>             the left side of
>>>>             the Transfer column over to shrink the Desc, all the
>>>>             columns Transfer and to
>>>>             the right drag over to the left, but when I click to
>put
>>>>             them down,
>>>>             they snap back to where they were. I can't shrink the
>>>>             Desc column.
>>>>             And then several of the columns are too small
>>>>             to see. If I drag the left side of Balance to the left,
>>>>             it gets larger, but
>>>>             then Withdrawal becomes too small to see.
>>>>
>>>>             Suggestions?
>>>>             Thanks!
>>>>
>>>>             _______________________________________________
>>>>             gnucash-user mailing list
>>>>             gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>>>             To update your subscription preferences or to
>unsubscribe:
>>>>             https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>>>>             -----
>>>>             Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>>>             You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         -- 
>>>>         David Carlson
>>>
>>



More information about the gnucash-user mailing list