Cant fix column widths permanently with IB TWS stand-alone classic

Z

zeek5

I have been using InteractiveBrokers IB TWS stand-alone program in classic mode for maybe a decade. I have tried many different settings in Layout. But I am not able to set column widths and have them stay with those widths that I set for each column, as I change "Quote monitor" (data and order) pages. Column widths also "reset" when I close the program and reopen TWS. And they sometimes change more dramatically and often in a ridiculously useless way in one page, when I set column widths in another page.

I am currently using Windows 10 latest updates, with latest JAVA and API and TWS, as of Feb. 7, 2017. But as I said above I have noticed this problem for many years with all versions of TWS software and several windows versions too. Am I the only one with this problem?

Thanks in advance!

PS I have already tried many times the following settings in TWS: Layout, "Fit columns to window", and "resize columns" (with right click on column header) with same results of apparently random resets of columns widths in TWS quote monitor pages, when I move from page to page in TWS.
 
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Absolutely no help to you.
Posting merely out of solidarity with a fellow-sufferer.
Your post could've been mine.

Win7Pro; 952.3b; TWS user for decade+.
 
After modifying the column sizes have you tried to click "save settings"? I don't use the classic layout, but this does seem to work for the mosaic layout.
 
Thanks HobbyTrading, but
I have tried that. Additionally, "save settings" occurs automatically on every exit. And the problem of columns widths changing on background pages persists, when I change column widths on an active page.
 
I assume you have tried the new version. If not, give it a try. I gave up the classic a couple of years ago after using it from its inception because I liked the TWS version better.
 
Thanks JackRab, I was not aware of that setting. Unfortunately, I tried this and various combinations of the other settings mentioned in my first post and the problem still persists.
 
Thanks jficquette, but I really want to stay with Classic TWS quote monitor and trading pages.

I can't help but think that I must be missing something obvious for all of these years. Surely there is some way to just set a column width and have that remain fixed regardless of what other column widths I set on other pages in TWS classic. Wouldn't this have been the simplest way to design the user-configurable quote monitor and trading pages, and their configuration files and presentation routines?

I would be interested in knowing if anyone has TWS classic quote monitor pages with custom sized column widths, that are not changed automatically by TWS when you change pages or reopen TWS.
 
Just BTW, there is no such thing as "TWS Classic" -- there are only version numbers as available from the HELP pulldown at the top of the page.

FWIW, the word "Classic" is in use, by IB, but in regards to TWS color palettes. Sorry, but that's it. There is even the "Mosaic" *mode*, describing a very different sort of configuration with IB's servers, but the "spreadsheet" mode (called "Classic" here
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/tws/quotemonitortop.htm)
has version numbers that progress with time, and the 795 that I started with was not the 845 that worked so well, nor the 949.3d that was a definite TWS high point, as opposed to to the 952.3b that's been chugging merrily away since November. Each of these versions is materially different from the others, so "Classic" can ONLY refer to the mode, not the actual software release.

At any event, patience and grace to all. And I hope *your* version is stable, and provides you with a sweet machine.
 
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