[GNC] How to widen the 'Account' column when entering transactions

[Ken Pyzik]

David -- yes, you are absolutely correct.   All I ask is for people to 
stop trying to say that GnuCash's behavior is spreadsheet behavior -- it 
just IS NOT.

In Excel, I can control the length of any column -ANY column - to be any 
length - ANY LENGTH -- I want.  It let's me choose.  It let's me CONTROL 
ALL the lengths.  It does not "automatically adjust" anything unless I 
WANT it to.  It let's ME decide.  It does NOT decide for me.

So saying that it is just like a spreadsheet leads to an expectation gap 
that cannot be easily satisfied.   But, for some reason, every time the 
issue comes up, people try to justify it and say -oh, it's just like a 
spreadsheet.  PLEASE. PLEASE STOP SAYING IT.  As you just said -- just 
point to the already documented behavior.

Now, that being said - I also agree with you 100%.  If someone does not 
like it - join in and fix it.  Otherwise - accept it and move on.  I 
moved on many years ago.  Having worked with many different spreadsheet 
programs - I know them very well.  You might say I know them personally! 
   And Gnucash's column lengths are NOT spreadsheet behavior.  They just 
are not.

Ken

------ Original Message ------
>From "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
To "Ken Pyzik" <pyz01 at outlook.com>; adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net; 
gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Date 3/11/2026 8:07:37 PM
Subject Re: [GNC] How to widen the 'Account' column when entering 
transactions

>Ken,
>
>The fact is that every column *except* the Description column behaves 
>as everyone here seems to think it should. (I'll note that our 
>determination of what is right is determined by our conditioning 
>through experience, and not necessarily by what would be best in a 
>given situation).
>
>The reasons for making the Description behavior different are 
>definitely buried in the past, which is understandable given GnuCash's 
>almost 3 decades of existence and volunteer developer base. Maybe, just 
>maybe, some developer in 1997 decided that having empty screen real 
>estate on the right was not a good idea (especially given screen 
>technology in the 1990s), and having a field fill the remaining space 
>was preferable. Having made that decision, it seems logical to have the 
>Description field be that field.
>
>Once coded, no one has had the determination to go back and rewrite the 
>core code of the entire app to fix what is, ultimately, a matter of 
>preference and expectation rather than actual program functionality.
>
>And as Adrien noted, the of behavior of this field is documented in 
>numerous places, such that a person who needed to understand this could 
>go to a written document and read about both the behavior and how to 
>work within its limitations.
>
>Having listened to this very discussion annually on the lists for 
>nearly 20 years, I'm ready for people to learn to accept this. That, or 
>write new code to remove the behavior that everyone loves to complain 
>about.
>
>David T.
>
>
>On March 12, 2026 2:00:08 AM GMT+05:30, Ken Pyzik <pyz01 at outlook.com> 
>wrote:
>>
>>Sorry -- I don't mean to be a contrarian here - but having worked with spreadsheets for over 35 years, the columns do NOT act/respond like Libre Office and Excel.  Yes, they do move by handling the right side - BUT they do not work like Excel or Calc .
>>
>>For example, if you move the description column at the title bar and try to "make it smaller" it refuses and snaps back to the original length.  THIS IS NOT spreadsheet behavior.  If I wanted to make the description field only 5 spaces - it is NOT allowed.  Again - this is not spreadsheet behavior.  Spreadsheet behavior would allow me to make the size of the column ANYTHING I want even if i had 100 characters in there - it would allow me to make it only 5 characters and wrap the text.  GNUCASH DOES NOT DO THIS.
>>
>>Then if you attempt to move other columns, the space it some how allocated to the description field as well.  There seems to be some spastic proportional spacing going on - and this is DEFINITELY not spreadsheet behavior.
>>
>>So please - you can say justify it anyway you want and you can say you are OK with this odd behavior - but it is NOT spreadsheet behavior.   I have learned to live with it.  I still really enjoy and use the product.  But please everyone, stop saying it is spreadsheet behavior.  It is not.
>>
>>Ken
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>------ Original Message ------
>>From "Adrien Monteleone" <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net>
>>To gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
>>Date 3/11/2026 1:03:29 PM
>>Subject Re: [GNC] How to widen the 'Account' column when entering transactions
>>
>>>And Number for MacOS and LibreOffice Calc. (I don't have Excel handy to test)
>>>
>>>All of those apps size a column by dragging its right-handle border in the header. If you think you are sizing by dragging the left-handle, notice instead, the column to the right does not resize, but moves, as the column to the left shrinks or grows.
>>>
>>>I'm not sure why folks think it would work any other way.
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>Adrien
>>>
>>>On 3/11/26 2:59 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
>>>>The Gnumeric spreadsheet app does as well. (which is where the code came from if I'm not mistaken.)
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