Sigh. Yes, your advise works (now that I know it) as long as the
window is maximized on my laptop. It doesn't really work if the
GC window is less than maximum but as you said, there's more
benefit from GC than going elsewhere. I came to GC after 20
years of Quicken when they started a subscription.
Thank you!

On 11/5/2025 9:54 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Chris (and Paul), for what it's worth, yes, the Description column is set to fill the remaining width of the window. That is simply how the GnuCash register works, and that is how it has ALWAYS worked.

People (myself included, 19 years ago) have complained about this idiosyncratic behavior, but no one has put in the time to code a different behavior. If you or anyone else wanted to fix this, by all means, the user base would support it. Me? I've just come accept it as part of The GnuCash Way.

@Paul: when you do as I advise, the Description column snaps back-- but it leaves the remaining columns (all the way out to the Balance column) intact and on screen, which is what I thought you wanted in the first place?

David T.
On Nov 5, 2025, at 9:46 PM, Chris K <[email protected]> wrote:

    It appears to me that the Description column width can only be
    reduced to the point that all the columns fill the window,
    otherwise it snaps back so that all the columns fill the window,
    as you say. However, ff you want to make one of the other columns
    wider first, e.g Transfer, then you can reduce the Description
    column so all columns then fill the window again with a narrower
    Description column.

    On 05/11/2025 16:04, Paul Kinzelman wrote:
    On 11/5/2025 8:34 AM, [email protected] wrote:
    Did you in fact click and drag the right side of the Description
    column to the left and then release?
    Yes, and it snaps back. If I drag it to the right it stays and
    moves the Transfer and the
    rest of the columns off the screen to the right. I can't seem to
    shrink the Desc
    column by dragging the right side to the left.

    Are you looking at the *Guide* for section 2.3.5? Did you click
    the link i provided?
    I saw what you sent me, but as you said, it's not very clear.
    But I also wanted to find it in the documentation. Oh I see it's
    in the Guide,
    not in the Manual where I was looking.
    But I still can't download them. The section says "Downloads" so
    I figured
    there would be a way to download it.

    ⁣David T.​

    On Nov 5, 2025, 7:46 PM, at 7:46 PM, Paul Kinzelman
    <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 11/4/2025 10:00 PM, [email protected] 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
    <[email protected]>
    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, [email protected] 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
    <[email protected]> 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
    <[email protected]> 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!

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             David Carlson

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