Edit Item window will not resize

Yes, that type of window (I think all of the list edit windows) can't be resized. It can be maximized, but not resized. If you're in single window mode, it'll be maximized automatically, as will almost all windows.

Perhaps if you post a screenshot that will help others understand what you're referring to.

I realize that this window does not resize, but it has resized itself. Please see the image.  It is so large that I cannot see the buttons at the bottom and do not know how to fix it.

Good day, @lsccbean.

It seems like a duplicate post. My colleague has already provided an answer for you. You can refer to this link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/re-resize-the-enter-bills-window/0...

Please let me know if you need further assistance. We're always here to help.

It is not the same issue.

Thanks for getting back with the Community, lsccbean. I appreciate your detailed information and screenshot.

Since your Edit Item window is displaying larger than normal and changing the display settings for QuickBooks didn't fix it, you'll want to try adjusting your view preferences.

Here's how:

1. In QuickBooks, go to the Edit menu, then choose Preferences.
2. Click Desktop View from your list and access its My Preferences tab.
3. In the View section, pick your One Window option.
4. Select OK.
5. Close and reopen QuickBooks, then check to see if your Edit Item window is displaying properly.

If the Edit Item window is still not displaying correctly, you can change your Windows display settings:

1. Follow the steps on Microsoft's website to reset your default display settings for Windows 10 and Windows 8.
2. Set the screen resolution to at least 1024 x 748. Intuit recommends 1920 x 1080 as the best resolution to use with QuickBooks.
3. When you're finished, restart your computer, open QuickBooks, and verify if the problem's still occurring.

In the event your Edit Item window is still displaying incorrectly, I'd recommend getting in touch with our Customer Care team. They'll be able to pull up the account in a secure environment, conduct further research, and create an investigation ticket if necessary.

I'll be here to help if there's any questions. Have an awesome day!

I've tried both of those fixes (and a few others as recommended) and the "Edit Item" window is still stuck in that large size.

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@lsccbeanwrote:I realize that this window does not resize, but it has resized itself. Please see the image. 

I've tried that fix too...holding down the shift key while double clicking on an item from the item list does nothing to the size of the Edit Item window. I could keep it maximized, but that is not how I work in the QB environment. I have multiple windows open at once and click between them constantly.  I've been using QB since its inception and it seems like I had a similar problem once with a check register doing the same thing, and it seems like the shift option worked for that.  This is the first time I've encountered this problem.

Also weird. Holding down the Shift key as mentioned should return the window to it's default size and position.  That it doesn't suggests the code doesn't resize this type of window, figuring that it's not resizable.

Questions:

- If you edit different types of items, do you get different size windows?

- If you try in another company, perhaps a sample company, does the same thing happen or does the window look normal?

I just wanted to let you know that you're not going crazy.  I can confirm that something happened very recently that made it impossible to resize the edit window.  It happened first on my main desktop machine, but was still working as expected on my server machine.  I then went back to my main desktop and did a repair install, and that fixed it for a while.  But as you know, QuickBooks constantly wants to update itself, and following the next update, it again became impossible to resize the window.  The next time the server machine got an update, it too was afflicted.

I tried to get help via chat, but it seemed apparent that the agent had never actually done any work with QuickBooks.  He dug up some ancient articles that don't even describe current versions of Windows or QuickBooks.  There was conversation about Windows compatibility mode, which is something that became irrelevant as soon as a QuickBooks development caught up with Windows.  I think that goes back to Windows XP.  I saw those same articles a very long time ago.  And yet everyone wants to dredge them up, as if something that didn't work 20 years ago would suddenly start working now.

No, somewhere along the way, an update broke the software and the QuickBooks guys have not been able/willing to receive input from real-world users.  It's a big problem, but I don't know how to talk to anyone who cares.

FWIW, nothing makes the window respect any controls.  Even "cascade" or "tile" can't get control of the window size.  There's actually no way to even get to the bottom of the window.  At one point I had the thought that if only I could get to the bottom of the window, I might finally be able to drag it to a smaller size.  I managed to create a virtual window that was much larger than my physical screen, so I got to the bottom of the window, but I can confirm that it can't be resized from the bottom either.  QuickBooks is broken.  Does anyone here know how to get that information to someone who actually cares and who also has the power to get it fixed?

@BigRedConsultingto answer your questions directly, the shift key works on other windows, but not on the edit window.

I've been using QuickBooks since Windows 3.1 and the edit window has always been resizable. It has to be resizable in order to be usable.  It was resizable last month.

It doesn't matter which item one edits - the window is always locked at a width that is wider than the QB window and multiple times the height of the physical screen.

Changing to a different company file has no effect.

Welcome back to the QuickBooks Community, MrMark. This isn't the kind of feeling that I wish you to have about resizing the Edit item section and we know how much time it can take when something isn’t working the way you need it. I'll ensure you'll be routed to the right person so you're able to report this matter.

Our QuickBooks Desktop Support Team has the tools to pull up your account in a secure environment which we're unable to do it here in the Community. With this, I recommend contacting them so they'll be able to investigate the cause of why the Edit edit won't allow you to resize the window.

Then, you can open this article to view different details on how to troubleshoot font, sizing, or other display issues in QBDT: Fix screen issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Lastly, you may refer to this article to see steps on how you can delete or make any changes to your item list in our program: Add, edit, and delete items.

I'm only a few clicks away if you need further assistance with customizing the appearance of your Item window in the QuickBooks Desktop account. It's always my pleasure to help you out again.

Phone support refused to support me unless I abandoned my current version and bought the subscription version instead.  The links don't work.  They will never work, no matter how many times they are regurgitated.  It can't be fixed with Windows hacks because this is not a Windows problem - it is a QuickBooks problem.  One day it worked, and the next day it did not.  I can only guess that the misbehavior is an artifact of a QuickBooks update, because it inflicted a second computer just a few days after it crippled the first one. 

Here is the most important thing: You guys don't need me to fix this for you.  I can't fix it, because I didn't cause it.  This is a result of your code, so you alone can fix it.  It's easy to observe, and anyone who actually uses QuickBooks to do actual bookkeeping would know how crucial it is for you solve this problem.  Please stop showing me irrelevant troubleshooting articles and look to your software instead.  The software is broken - please fix it.

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@MrMark wrote:

I've been using QuickBooks since Windows 3.1 and the edit window has always been resizable. It has to be resizable in order to be usable.  It was resizable last month.

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I have many versions of QuickBooks installed on multiple computers. The Edit window is not resizable on any of them. It never had been in 25 years of using QuickBooks. It does change size depending on the type of item being edited, however, and also it can be maximized.

Your screenshot is unusual, but it appears you can still use the edit item window, since all of the field and buttons are visible and appear usable. Is that correct?

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@MrMark wrote:

It doesn't matter which item one edits - the window is always locked at a width that is wider than the QB window and multiple times the height of the physical screen.

 

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Your screenshot doesn't show it as wider than the QB window, so this statement is somewhat confusing.

I just updated my Enterprise 20.0 to the latest release, R13, and still don't see an issue with the size of the window. I tried all sorts of things to try to trip it up, to make it look something like your screenshot, but wasn't able to.

Strange that you've never been able to resize that window while I always have.  I have no idea what to say about that.  One might think that decades of daily experience with a software would give one a very accurate idea of how it normally works.   It seems to me that if @lsccbean is reporting this as a new problem, then I am not the only one who sees this behavior as a crippling change.  FWIW, I am talking about editing an inventory item.  Are we talking about the same thing?

There is no reasonable way to have more than one window open while the edit window is taking more than the entire extents of the physical screen.  Task switching, maybe, but not "windows", as one would expect when working with any program in the Windows environment.

I wish I could see which screenshot you're looking at, but I have to admit that I don't know how to see my own screenshots in this forum!

@MrMarkRE: Strange that you've never been able to resize that window while I always have. I have no idea what to say about that.

I've got about 10 versions of QuickBooks installed on different computers, Enterprise and Premier for multiple version years, on multiple Windows versions. In many cases I'm running R1 of these installations, the original code that shipped many years ago. And I can't resize the new or edit item window on any of them.

Please post screenshots showing before and after, where you resize the edit item window (or account or class or customer or any edit list record window). I'd like to see that.

The New Item window looks like this... It is true that it cannot be resized, and there are times when it would be useful to be able to expand the fields, but at least it fits in the QB window:

The edit item used to look the same, but now it is now wider than the QB window size, and longer than the physical screen.  There is no way to change the width, nor to even get to the bottom of the window:

None of the display options in the "Window" drop-down function as expected.  Both "Tile Vertically" and "Tile Horizontally" show only the malfunctioning edit window.  "Cascade" shows borders for multiple smaller windows as expected, but the Edit Item window does not respect the command, so it is both wider than the QB window, and also longer than the physical screen.

Editing other lists from the "Lists" drop-down menu works the same way that Edit Item used to work:

@MrMark 

RE: The edit item used to look the same, but now it is now wider than the QB window size, and longer than the physical screen. There is no way to change the width, nor to even get to the bottom of the window:

That's almost what I see when I pick View | One Window from the QB menu, but not quite. It's missing the X in the upper right corner of the window.

When you open the drop down in the upper left corner of the window, what are the available options?  And, do they work?

- If Maximize is available that means the window is not maximized.

- If Minimize is unavailable, that means QuickBooks is in "One Window" mode, as seen on QB's View menu.

However, since you have the Tile and Cascade options available on the Windows menu you must be in the Multiple Windows mode, as those options disappear in One Window mode.

These questions may have been asked, but still:

- Does the same thing happen when using other company files? In a sample company?

- Does the same thing happen on other computers using this company file?

- What Release of QB 2020 are you using, from the F2 window?

@BigRedConsulting, Maximize is available, but my goal is not to maximize.  QB is not in "One Window" mode.  At one point I did invoke that mode just to observe the behavior, but I would never choose to actually use it that way.  Minimize is also available, even though QB is not in One Window mode, and it does in fact minimize the window. The "Move" option is also available, which is how I managed to move the window up far enough to see the bottom edge (using Windows accessibility features).  But FYI, the bottom of the window is the same as the top and the sides, in that the edge cannot be "grabbed" to resize it.

Yes, I am indeed in Multiple Windows mode.

Yes, the same thing happens with other company files.

Yes, the same thing now happens on another computer, although, when the behavior first manifested itself on my main computer, it was still working as expected on my "server" machine.  It wasn't until days or weeks later that the server machine became afflicted.

I'm using Release R14P.

Well, while ugly at least you can still interact with the form.

I have R13P.  Perhaps that's the difference. I'll try to update and see...

I just updated to QB 2020 R14P. Now I see the issue as well. So, it's a new bug in R14.

It's quite the mystery, really, as when I downloaded R14 I got this message:

Maybe this is one of the issues "folks like you" (how condescending) asked to have fixed. You probably asked for a whole lot more white space when editing Inventory items. And Other Charges. And Subtotals. And Groups. And Discounts. And Sales Tax items.  But you liked the window as it was for sales tax groups, non inventory parts, and service items.

Or, more likely, Intuit didn't actually test the changes they made while they were "hard at work". Why test? What could go wrong?

Yeah, I have to admit that I'm not a QuickBooks fan, so I'm sure I'm on someone's blacklist!

For the record, I would not be one who wants more white space.  Adjustable space, sure, but QuickBooks already has an awful lot of wasted screen real estate.

So now that you have seen it for yourself, how can we get it fixed?