[GNC] column width help

[R Losey]

I often use double-clicking in Excel to auto-adjust width, and that's
exactly what GnuCash does -- except that GnuCash allows one to double-click
the header for the final column, and the special handling of the
"Description" column.  Whether or not the Description field should be they
way it is could be discussed.

But aside from that quirk, I find it very Excel-like.


On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM Ken Pyzik <pyz01 at outlook.com> wrote:

> Richard - Stan
>
> Which all goes back to my original assertion.  If the columns were
> Excel-like, you could do anything you want and place them anyway you want.
> You could control the columns as you want.  All of the double clicks,
> work-arounds, default widths, auto-adjustments, proportional spacing,
> hamstrung column balancing, blah-blah-blah - is old school nonsense.  I
> don't like to be picky — but in the perfect world - you could just setup
> the column widths to anything you wanted and it would just stay put (like
> Excel!).
>
> But enough of my complaining.  The software is excellent.  This annoyance
> (which is really annoying for new uses who have been working with
> Excel/Calc spreadsheets for over 35 years!) is just that — annoying.  It
> does work (if that's what you want to call it) - and it is NOT a bug.  But
> it certainly is quirky!  And it IS the primary reason we see so many
> comments in the e-mail chains regarding "column widths in the register"
> questions.
>
> Ken
> ------------------------------
> *From:* gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook.com at gnucash.org>
> on behalf of R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Saturday, November 15, 2025 6:20 PM
> *To:* Brian Fallik <bfallik at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [GNC] column width help
>
> I don't think people read your post carefully. It is the RIGHT side of a
> column that changes that column. I have often accidentally done what you've
> done - all you need to do is to double-click the border on the RIGHT side
> of the column you want to adjust, and it wall auto-resize properly.
>
> Please note that there are two exceptions to this: 1) The final column
> "Balance" allows you to double-click the header, and it auto-adjusts, and
> 2) The "Description" column, when double-clicked resizes itself so that all
> columns are visible (assuming the GnuCash window is large enough).
>
> So, what you want to do is to double-click on the right-hand header
> "Num/Action" column. (Note: You may need to then right-click on the
> Description column to have it auto-adjust after you've fixed the Num/Action
> column.)
>
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 1:44 PM Brian Fallik <bfallik at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Long time GnuCash user, thanks for the great software.
> >
> > I just encountered a significant problem which seems to be a bug. I
> > accidentally narrowed the right side columns on account view (transfer,
> > payment, charge, etc.). Both the column headers and their contents are
> now
> > so narrow as to be unreadable. But I can't seem to widen them at all. If
> I
> > drag the column border to the left, they stay the same size. If I drag to
> > the right, they get smaller. So I inadvertently made them smaller and
> now I
> > can't get them back. This is obviously a major hurdle since now I have no
> > way to view the data in these cells.
> >
> > Version: 5.13
> > Build ID: 5.13+(2025-09-27)
> > Finance::Quote: 1.67
> >
> > Running on Fedora 43.
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> > brian
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>
> --
> _________________________________
> Richard Losey
> rlosey at gmail.com
> Micah 6:8
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8