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." <[email protected]>
To "Ken Pyzik" <[email protected]>; [email protected];
[email protected]
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 <[email protected]>
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" <[email protected]>
To [email protected]
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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