I believe Save Settings only preserves the list of contracts on each page, not any of the column settings.
I just upgraded to the latest build, and now resizing the columns is even more annoying!!
Since I only trade stocks with BEST_ECN route, I normally resize the contract column to only show the symbol which saves some space. Now I have to hide the Exch and Desription columns; Unfortunately, there is a minimum width '..' for each column so I can't completely hide them. It looks kind of ugly.
Even worse, they made entering a new symbol an even more painful process. Now, after typing in a symbol, I have to click 'Stock' on the popup window #1, and then I have to click 'BEST_ECN' on the route popup window. Before it was just a single popup..
Also, on one of my pages, I can't enter a new symbol. I get the message 'You must enter a valid exchange when using a symbol-based query'. I've never seen that message before.
On some other thread I requested many useability improvements to the JTWS, including saving the column/window settings and simplying order entry by allowing the user to set contract defaults for contract type and route. For myself, I would have it set to Stock and BEST_ECN (1st choice) and BEST (2nd choice of NYSE).
The Hot Keys are cool, esp. the increase/decrease size and price. But I find editing a contract page very tedious because the delete and insert keys do no delete line and insert lines. You have to right-click, and select 'Insert Ticker', 'Insert Row', 'Delete Row'. Arrgh. There should be HotKeys for these operations.. Actually the 'Cancel' could also double as a delete..
The tabular display of contracts and orders is very nice and better that others I have used PreferredTrade, CyberX, but they really need to work on useability to make up for the fact they don't have an integrated charting like RealTick, CyberTrader, etc.
The absolute worst part of JTWS is the position mgmt 'Account Information'. This window wastes a huge amounty of space, does not show realtime profit/loss on each position and all open positions, does not have quick way to liquidate positions or preload onto an order page with quantities set to positive size (helps when you have 537 shares of something..). Also there is *often* a delay, sometimes up to 15-20 seconds, in updating the position list. The Account Balances update immediately as soon as an order is executed on the Order Page, but for some reason the positions themselves can take awhile to update. Realtick and CyberX/CyberTrader are very superior in this area.
Fleance