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Managing Open Windows

We all work with multiple programs open at one time. It’s convenient. It helps us work faster, more efficiently. We can access data in different software without closing the project we are really working on.

We’ve done it for so long, we don’t even think about it. It’s the name of our operating system. Windows.

We do the same thing in QuickBooks. We are preparing an invoice for a customer. We need information about an employee who worked for that customer.

We don’t want to close our work. We just open another window in QuickBooks to get the needed information.

Today, let’s look at how we manage those open windows.

There is a preference setting that allows the QuickBooks user to make the choice between seeing one window open at a time, or being able to slide multiple windows about the QuickBooks screen.

The default is Multiple Windows. The One Window setting is seldom used.

This is a setting on the My Preferences tab. So, each individual user could select their own setting.

Before QuickBooks 2013, there was no ‘Left Icon Bar’. That’s the big blue vertical bar along the left side of the screen in QuickBooks 2013 and later. But, we did have an Open Windows List.

This older format is still available. If you go to the View dropdown menu, select ‘Hide Icon Bar’ and ‘Open Window list’, you will get the old look as shown above.

The left hand icon bar was added in QuickBooks 2013. Monitors have grown, especially in width. There are several different uses for the left icon bar. One of them is the Open Windows List.

Above is the same QuickBooks file with changes in the appearance. These changes are made on the View dropdown menu.

The lower arrows points to a list of alternative information that can be tracked on the left icon bar. You could display account balances for instance, or shortcuts to other areas of QuickBooks.

In the screenshot, the open window list is displayed.

The two alternatives shown, the old open windows list and the new left icon bar both allow quick navigation between windows in QuickBooks.

If neither of these work for you, there is another option for tracking open windows.