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Posted by TomYoung on November 16, 2008, 10:23 am
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> Mac Quicken 2007 observations. 15 Nov 2008
>
> [let me know if I'm wrong with any of these observations. I'm new
> to Quicken but all this is based on my actual experience so far].
>
[Don't have Mac Quicken. I use Q2007D for Windoze, so the comments
that follow may or may not be useful to you.]
> o When a file is opened, there doesn't appear to be a way to inquire
> =A0 =A0what file it is. It opens the last file opened, but you may not
> =A0 =A0know which one that is. The file name should be displayed in a
> =A0 =A0menu line or somewhere.
When a file is open in my Q2007D the file name is shown in the top bar
of the screen, e.g., "Quicken 2007 Deluxe - Youngs - [Account Name].
Not so in the case of the Mac? If not, you might try password
protecting the files (use a one-letter "password" if security isn't an
issue) and the file name might show up in the password dialog.
>o File -> Open -> should display a "Recently Opened" file list. Many
> good programs do that these days
Clicking on File in Q2007D give a drop down menu with the usual
actions (New, Open, etc.) but also shows the last 4 files opened at
the bottom of the list. Not on the Mac? Selecting File > Open brings
up a new window with all available files in the Quicken folder.
>
> o File -> Close =A0- would be a good addition as it doesn't exist.
> =A0 =A0To close a file and open another one you =A0File -> Open and assum=
e
> =A0 =A0the one you were in is now closed (or with Quicken not running,
> =A0 =A0double click on a .qdfm file). I find this odd because many
> =A0 =A0programs allow you to open multiple files (e.g. OpenOffice) and
> =A0 =A0lets you obviously select which one you are working on.
>
I've sometimes wished I could have multiple files open but not having
this options in Quicken is probably A Good Thing. It might just be to
darned easy to make a series of entries only to find out you've been
working in the wrong file for the last 15 minutes!
> o Historical Quote downloads are not robust. e.g. AAPL will NOT get
> =A0 =A0a 5 year archive (for me and Quicken support confirms that too)
> =A0 =A0it only seems to get 5 quotes! And this has been observed for INTC
> =A0 =A0and COMPX but only intermittently!! (seems like a serious bug).
> =A0 =A0[When this happens to me now, I go to Google Financial, the stock,
> =A0 =A0click on 5 years, click on download csv, and then massage it with
> =A0 =A0an emacs macro to put it in proper qif format, and import it into
> =A0 =A0my Quicken stock file].
Quote downloads have been a problem in Quicken generally for years and
years. You can go over to the Quicken Community section of the
Quicken site and read about the issue for hours, if you wish.
One thing I *have* asked Quicken to do - with no effect, of course -
is to have the program require your permission to download historical
quotes for periods you've "closed" via the File > Passwords >
Transaction mechanism. Quicken provides its own quotes and those
quotes may be different than the ones you see on your broker's
statement. So if you've "closed" a period, having reconciled/adjusted
to the broker's statement, Quicken can make an invisible "prior period
adjustment" if a stock quote it provides is different than the one you
used off the broker's statement.
>
> o There isn't an obvious way to re-reconcile an account. i.e. clear
> =A0 =A0"R" from transactions so you can start over if you add older
> =A0 =A0transactions, edit some reconciled transactions, etc. It turns out
> =A0 =A0not to be difficult, but seems to be undocumented, or at least
> =A0 =A0obscure, so it was not obvious at first. The way I found was to ge=
t
> =A0 =A0to the window that lists all reconciliations by date (which I
> =A0 =A0only arrived at intermittently, I'm not sure how to just open
> =A0 =A0that) and select one. Now the non-obvious =A0thing because there i=
s
> =A0 =A0no delete button in the window, but if you go to the main window
> =A0 =A0with one selected, click on "Edit" at the top of that window, ther=
e
> =A0 =A0is a "delete reconciliation" (or something like that) and it
> =A0 =A0will delete that reconciliation and remove the R's from the
> =A0 =A0relevant entries, and NOT otherwise disturb the transactions.
> =A0 =A0This was far from obvious to me. I just tripped on it.
>
No comment here since I've not had to do that.
> =A0 =A0There should be a button that allows you to wholesale (or by a
> =A0 =A0date window) clear "R" and "C" (other?) Clr codes. I don't care
> =A0 =A0if there are three or four "Are you sure you want to do this?"
> =A0 =A0buttons to click through, sometimes it is necessary to save the
> =A0 =A0end user hours of their time. (i.e. me).
>
In Q2007D the Edit > Find & Replace could serve this function. Again,
I've never needed to do this.
> o when reconciling, there is a "clear all" but no "check all"
> =A0 =A0transactions as being cleared in this version. That would be
> =A0 =A0helpful when one wants to do an initial first reconcile with
> =A0 =A0hundreds (or more) of transactions.
>
In the reconcile window of Q2007D I can check or uncheck a
transaction, move down several lines and, while holding down the shift
key, click on another transaction and all the transactions in between
are checked/unchecked.
> o There is no printed book on the Mac version that one can
> =A0 =A0purchase. That I've found, anyway. I have several on the Windows
> =A0 =A0version. I eventually had to print out the 477 page guide from
> =A0 =A0the program itself to get Mac specific documentation I could
> =A0 =A0easily read, study, and refer to.
>
Maybe where were going here is you should consider the PC version of
Quicken?
> o Buried in that documentation is a "re-indexing" commmand
> =A0 =A0(Option-Command-B) that is recommended before any exports, to
> =A0 =A0fix file problems, etc. I only found that in the manual, I don't
> =A0 =A0see any menu item to do it that makes it obvious. So it seems it
> =A0 =A0is slightly hidden from the user unless they study the manual.
> =A0 =A0That doesn't seem right to me.
>
Over in the Windoze world I'd say that online help is weak, at best.
Tom Young
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