avp2's dashboard

I wonder if the dark fields you mention are the ones that are "not applicable" for the type of transaction being viewed and therefore are not modifiable. I had forgotten about those as something that is just there in the background. BTW, the colors that seem to work best for me are a medium green with light green register with dark green header and I am using the 628 preview build in which they did make some improvements in display contrasts.

I have not used my mac version (on my desktop) for a few months now as I am out of town and my netbook is XP (been working on installing OS X on it, but not there yet). Hope I don't find too much of a color problem when I get back to OS X.

Also go to www.ofxhome.org and check the OFX directory to see if your CU is there. – avp2, on December 02, 2008 18:49

I changed the background colors on my WinXP and Mac setup both to help, but It could definitely be better. I think the biggest problem is the fine-lined font/s. Maybe if we could set fonts and their characteristics in the options.

If the organization does not know what the OFX data tags are, they probably do not support OFX direct access and you are out of luck.

However, most CU's and banks do support OFX, or Quicken, download. If they do, open a downloaded OFX file in a text editor (such as Notepad). You may be able to find the info you need for manual setup and get lucky,

Wow. Another Q oldtimer. I don't remember the year I bought my first copy, but think it was $24.95 and mac only. If they had only left the dumb, slow desktop look interface, made the on-line connections normal speed and showed a bit more regard for users, I might still be with them. They have become the AutoCAD of finance, thinking that everyone will stick with them just because of size and the trouble of switching.

Your import certainly did better than mine. I hope Jeff makes out as well.

There is currently no way to hide closed or dormant accounts. See my suggestion for a change that would allow this to be done and "click" that you like it if you think it's a good one.

I did not have any taxable investments to worry about. For those, you would definitely want to preserve your cost basis, average or actual transactions, and I guess the only way to preserve them in MD would be to manually enter each or figure the average and enter as a single buy at that price. For non-taxable, I am hoping my retirement carriers are required to (and will) keep whatever is needed to satisfy the tax man when I sell.

MD has two extensions (you can add) that update stock prices and seem to work well.

Try turning the "autosave" function off to see if it is what is causing the problem. If it is, you will have to decide whether to adjust or, maybe, make your file a bit smaller by archiving some of past transactions. You might also want to try unchecking the "backup every time I save" button;

I have a 1.8Mb file and do not notice any slowdown with my backup preferences set for 1 copy, no backup when I save, autosave every 5 minutes and put backup on an external disk. This is on a 1.4GHz G4 emac and 1.6GHz windows xp laptop.

At this time, I don't think you can.

In fact, I think, a global "move transaction" function, like in Quicken, would be really helpful.

I too switched from Quicken (on Mac) a few months ago because I was tired of the slow direct access and Intuit's extremely slow rate of making meaningful improvements; in other words FRUSTRATION. When they started, it was on mac and they did well. Things have not been the same since since about the time they added the stupid desktop menubar interface.

I do like Q's investment portfollio and account summary, but the MD homepage serves their function better for me

Anyway, MD does not handle investments quite as well as Quicken and its reports are not quite as flexible yet. When I switched, I had to do a lot of investment account cleanup, especially for reinvested dividends and interests. Most of those were added as separate categories witth (confusing) names similar to the investments. I ended up having to redo these categories and their transactions; also discovered a bug if you name the category exactly the same as the investment account (see posts) so don't do that.

If starting from new, you might want to try just building the investment accounts manually the way you want them and entering an initial balance; obviously losing history before where you start from.

On a mac, you should be able to put MD anywhere you want. Just search on the name to find our where it is.On windows, MD gets put in the Programs Files folder automatically and probably can not be mioved without it breaking.

On mac, I keep my data file in a "finance" folder in my profile and MD in a folder called "non-Apple apps". I leave the "applicatios" folder the same as what comes from an Apple OS install so that I can manage a rebuild.

I have 2008r3 build 626 running on Windows with Java 1.6.0_03. It is the preview version, but eems to work fine. I think the latest stable version is r2. Maybe your Java is behind or your update function is broken so that you don't see the true latest.

I have two capital One (USA) accounts that direct access fine with both the mac and windows versions of MD. I set them up the same as my other da accounts. – avp2, on November 18, 2008 09:08

My guess is you would have to create a new loan for the balance that is left after the lump payment. It seems to me that is what the bank is actually doing so you might want to look closely at the details, especially total interest vs the "normal" process of maintaining the payment and decreasing the interest and payoff date.

The trial version is limited to 100 entered (vs imported, from say Quicken) transactions. I do not know for sure, but it may be that the limit includes direct access to a bank also. If this is the problem, you may be able to create a new, empty MD datafile, add one bank account and then try an on-line connection to see how it works.

I was able to direct-access my Discover card account from both Quicken for mac (version 2004, 5 & 6) without any trouble before I switched to MD and I am still able to do it with MD after switching (both on Mac and Windows XP).

In other words and just as with other institutions, it depends on the card company and whether they support direct-access. The sam applies for download and import.