RE: There isn't a "Save Column" option. When you say that, you're basically saying "where I adjusted them to". 

I don't think I did. I wrote "saved columns", and meant more explicitly "saved column widths". Yes, there is no user interface to save column widths. Just as with window positions and sizes, it happens automatically as you work with various windows.

I even tried working in single window mode as in your screenshots, thinking that might cause what you're seeing, but couldn't reproduce it in that mode either. And I tried a sample company. Works there too without any issue. And I tried it in both QB 2018 and 2022.  Works the same, and so I figure it probably does in the in-between versions.

If you try it in multi-window mode (View | Multiple Windows) and resize the windows to be large enough to use (nearly full screen is fine) then do you see the same results, where your column widths are not saved?

I've posted this before, and am curious to know whether anyone has tried this, or if it's available on any other version.  I am using Enterprise Manufacturing and Wholesale 2022 - Canadian version.  

I've found that if the user's desktop view preferences are set to save on exit, the size of the columns in every screen EXCEPT reports will be saved after an initial manual adjustment.  This needs to be set for every user as far as I can tell.  Check (or have admin check) permissions if the preferences can't be accessed.  It doesn't solve the problem entirely, but it definitely makes it less annoying!

(Edit menu; Preferences; My Preference tab; Desktop View; Select 'save when closing company')

The preference to 'Save when closing company" makes no difference to this issue for me.  I have that setting turned on all the time.  I'm running Desktop Pro Plus 2022 and have had this column sizing issue since updating last year to Desktop Pro Plus 2021.

I work with the Items List all the time too.  Like you (and many others) I have this extremely annoying issue with Items when it should be fundamentally straightforward to re-size columns and have them stay as you re-sized them (just like in Excel), otherwise what's the point of allowing columns to be re-sized?!  I have had this issue ever since updating to Desktop Pro Plus 2021 last year (now on 2022), never had it before that.

This is a super serious issue since it constantly slows productivity to a crawl.  I can re-size Item List columns, Edit an item, finish editing the item by selecting OK (or Cancel the editing) and my columns immediately and always return to their own default sizes.  GOING TO ANY OTHER SCREEN after resizing the columns eliminates my resizing!  How useless is that for a supposedly mature software product.

I've had that Save When Closing Company button selected forever.  It's made zero difference.  I'm using QBD Enterprise and it's up to date.  As @Keybler (I think it was) mentioned, this is a daily frustration.  I'm trying to use the "save Current Desktop" under Edit/Preferences/Desktop View to see if that will work better, but as soon as I click it and then say OK and re-open the window, it defaults back to "keep previously saved desktop".

It's extremely frustrating.  I totally agree that useless info will default to a wide field and the items I need have to be adjusted to see critical data.  As it is, I have to copy/paste or hover to see or grab needed details for fields (such as memo) because it won't carry over from Custom to Vendor side or even within one or the other.

I have NONE of these issues with other programs where you set something and then it stays set.

Your last line is exactly the point "How useless is that for a supposedly mature software product." 

It's not like this is a fly-by-night brand new software.  And based on some of the other commenters, it does not seem to matter what version of QBD one is using.  We tried QBO, but that doesn't have nearly the features we need to run our complex business.

Every platform, every stupid quickbooks AD you see that allows comments. Make one about this issue!

If netsuite wasn't so d**n expensive and sage had the 3rd party e-commerce integrations (which are coming, im told) i would dump quickbooks in a heart beat over this SINGLE issue.

I looked into NetSuite and yes, it was like $1,200/month, so that's a NO!  Have never looked at Sage.  I'm not the only user, so we're stuck.  As it is we have to have a separate CRM and now I'm looking at a separate Project Management software because there is so much that cannot be done in QB that I desperately need for tracking our projects.  Between the constant tweaking of views, having to do custom notations as a workaround, and the reports that also need to be edited to be useful, I lose HOURS per week in productivity.  We even had a QB "expert" consult with us recently, which only confirmed that I wasn't crazy and that QB will not do many of these basic things that improve the user experience.

BigRedConsulting: I wasn't aware of the Multiple Windows/One Window setting. I've always been in Multiple Window mode. However, I tried your suggestion as given and it fixed the problem. Now the column widths are staying exactly as I resize them. So why did this trick work, and how are users supposed to know this trick, and why doesn't QB support know about this trick?

Maybe it's not a trick at all. Would resizing have worked properly if I had been running in One Window mode all along? (I've now changed to One Window mode as that's what I should have been using anyway. Resizing is working.)

Thanks very much for this fix. This will save a ton of time and frustration daily. I hope everyone else who has commented on this Item List column resizing problem sees your post and follows your suggestion to get it fixed.

@otfaccounting 

RE: I've always been in Multiple Window mode. 

Do you mean Single Window mode? My recommendation was to switch to multi-window mode which I always use and it always works.

RE: However, I tried your suggestion as given and it fixed the problem. Now the column widths are staying exactly as I resize them.

Good!

RE: So why did this trick work, and how are users supposed to know this trick, and why doesn't QB support know about this trick?

Not a trick exactly, but a guess: QuickBooks was designed to work in multiple-window mode from day one back in the last century. Then some user interface designer thought it might be nice to only see one window at a time and that got added to QuickBooks. Probably a Mac user. When in multi-window mode, QB remembers the position and size of each window you use, and (it seems) the column widths as well, though by deduction based on my recent experimentation, it seems to save them in a different data structure.

So, I guessed that perhaps when in single window mode, QB doesn't see the need to save the window positions and sizes because they aren't used - and also because if it did and then if you switched back to multi-window mode after using it for some time, your settings would be trashed.

And then I guessed that in this case it was also not saving the column widths. Which if proven to be so, is a programming error.

I suspect Intuit support doesn't know about it because they know very little about QuickBooks in general. One rep in this thread even claimed QB doesn't save column widths. When of course it does and the rep should know that.

It likely hasn't been communicated to users or documented because it is supposed to work no matter the view you're in: There is no reason at all not to save the column widths when in single-window mode.

No, I've always been in Multiple Window mode, which doesn't seem to jive with what you deduced.  I was still in Multiple Window mode when I resized the whole Item List window to just less than full screen, then resized the columns and they stayed.  I'd never done that before.  And Like I said, now the resizing works even in One Window mode!  That shouldn't be the case if your theory is true.  So I'd say you're onto something with your theory, but it's not quite working the way you think.

@otfaccounting 

RE: I was still in Multiple Window mode when I resized the whole Item List window to just less than full screen, then resized the columns and they stayed. I'd never done that before. 

Do you mean you never resized the Item window? It's kind of tiny by default & only shows 5 items. In any case, I tried it using its default tiny size (after resetting it) and the columns widths still stuck for me. I wouldn't think the size of the window mattered.

-------------edit--------------

Oh, I get it! You were in multi-window mode but maximized all of the windows! Something I didn't try. I tried both multi-window 'restored' mode and single-window mode, and both of them seem to work as expected.

This seems to be the only working solution that's been offered so far! While less than ideal, and certainly and eyesore, if you simply avoid maximizing your window in multiple windows mode then the software will remember all your column widths, window sizes, etc. Even saved my settings with a system restart! It looks almost the same as before, but the large blue windows borders are annoying for the time being. All you have to do is resize each window to as large as it will allow without using the maximize button at the top right of the window.

I am in Multi Window, full screen and my columns do not stick.

Attached is a simple guide you should be able to follow. Might not work for everyone.

I had used the setting edit/preferences/desktop view/save when closing company and that NEVER worked for me.  Yesterday, I tried changing it to edit/preferences/desktop view/save current desktop after resizing my columns in the Vendor and Customer windows.  When I went to go back and verify it, it had changed it to "keep previously saved desktop".  I tried changing it back to "save current desktop" and it still wouldn't stick. 

I logged off last night and when I logged back in this morning, my columns seem to be pretty much where I left them.

So may it has to do with other setting's on people's computers that causes certain settings to work for some people and not for others?

So maybe try messing with a couple of those buttons under the DESKTOP header under My Preferences?

Good luck with it.

Thanks, but can't open these png files.  Might be a firewall on my end.

Your input has been very helpful though, @Big_W!

Trial and error with the settings in Desktop view ended up working for me.  "Save when closing company" never worked for me, but "save current desktop" defaults to "keep previously saved desktop" on my PC and that seems to have saved the columns for me that I set yesterday.

Now if only I could get the VENDOR BILL screen to cooperate in the same way.  I MUST have our PO# on the bills and I can never get that column to display wide enough without re-sizing it every time.  I've tried moving that column and it doesn't help - it goes back to small as soon as I close it and open the bill screen again.  Why it can't just capture it as a data field is beyond me.  I have to type it or copy/paste it into the memo field in order for it to have any use to me, as our PO # is often the only tracking # I have available with certain vendors/subs.

I seem to have issue displaying images as well that I upload here..

It does seem to work if you use the download button and view them natively, though.

Here's some reuploads on an image hosting site: Imgur

We want you to have the best experience using the program, @BCFL, 

EH in CT.

I can see that the option to stick with the full screen and columns is a crucial feature for any business. Discovering new ways to adapt to our customers’ needs is how QuickBooks gets even better. Your feedback helps our Product Development team determine which feature will be implemented in the next future update. The change is also based on how popular a specific feature request is. 

That being said, I suggest submitting a product suggestion directly to our software engineers. We're taking notes of your ideas and insights. 

Let me show you:

1. Open your company file.
2. Proceed to the Help menu.
3. Choose Send Feedback Online.
4. Select Product Suggestion.
   
   

You can also review this article to know what to do if you see font, sizing, or other display issues: Fix screen issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Thank you for your patience while we work on this. Feel at ease to get back to this thread if you have other concerns. Please take care. 

I did exactly this in July of 2020, and we're still here talking about it.

@Big_W  RE: This seems to be the only working solution that's been offered so far! While less than ideal, and certainly and eyesore, if you simply avoid maximizing your window in multiple windows mode then the software will remember all your column widths, window sizes, etc.

Ahhh! Yes, there are three 'modes' you can be in:

- Multi-window 'restored'

- Multi-window 'maximized'

- Single-window.

It's the middle mode that's an issue, it seems. I suspect a coding error, where not only is the window size and position (correctly) not saved, but the custom column widths are also not saved, which IMO is a coding/logic error.

That's certainly what makes sense to me! They should be able to make short work of it now that we've troubleshooted it for them, haha. More than likely it will just fly under their radar though.

@Big_W 

I should add, in light of your dislike of window frames, that the column settings also seem to stick in 'single-window' mode, which looks almost exactly like multi-window mode when maximized.

Note it isn't really single-window mode despite the title. There can still be multiple windows open in this mode, visible on the Window menu.