Hello,
I would like to draw attention to a missing feature that I i would like to have every day: horizontal scrolling in list view.
Does anyone else need that or am i the only one who is missing this feature?
Thanks
Chris
Hello,
I would like to draw attention to a missing feature that I i would like to have every day: horizontal scrolling in list view.
Does anyone else need that or am i the only one who is missing this feature?
Thanks
Chris
The request is noted, with no promises, of course ![]()
I run into this constantly. A common use case for me is to have two windows side-by-side. With the number of columns I have selected and the sidebar visible, some of the columns are shrunk to a size that is unusable (e.g. URL), and it’s super frustrating that I cannot simply resize the columns as I can in the Finder because the horizontal width is fixed to the window size. I know I can hover, and that’s useful. But it’s no substitute for having necessary info available at a glance.
Every day I can’t believe that this feature isn’t requested by every DT user ![]()
Not even every year it seems ![]()
Though it may or may not help with your particular use cases, various potential workarounds for column view width limitations were discussed in this thread:
What is the physical size and resolution of your monitor?
Have you seen DT3 on a big widescreen monitor?
Hi, i am using DT with my 14" Macbook and the secretary is using a macmini with a 38" wide screen monitor. With the 38" screen everything is cool, but on a Macbook it is not
… Maybe an hidden option to enable horizontal scrolling could be possible. I can’t understand the problem to implement that option (i am not a programming expert and do not know if this would be complex)…
Is your MacBook resolution set to max under system settings/Displays?
I gather you frequently travel so an external monitor is not a realistic solution?
Yes, max resolution and really small font size … external monitor isn’t an option …
I am, and it is not. It’s a choice I hope they reconsider some day.
I actually came to the forums today to ask about this and found this thread. The lack of scrolling in list view is something I struggle with every day, I’ve just never thought to raise it. I have two 27” monitors, both displaying at 1920x1080. Visual challenges make it harder to have smaller text.
I often find myself unable to deal with the display until I make DT’s window very large. DT is mostly unusable on my laptop’s display unless I eliminate columns. If I don’t want to eliminate columns it can be tedious to expand a column of interest; I have to manually reduce the width of other columns before the interface allows me to increase its width.
The problem is particularly pronounced when I’m looking at a search result. I really do need a lot of columns to find what I’m looking for.
If I think back over the many years of using DT (since 2009), this is the one thing I’ve always struggled with and wish it was handled better.
Of course, that’s not what you want… I sometimes work with the small monitor on my Macbook too. As far as the search results are concerned, this might help a little. When you press Enter, you’ll see one more line. And you can scroll with the arrow key… Better than nothing ![]()
So this
Instead of this

And if the “tab column” is visible (I’m not sure what it’s called), I can usually see the whole name.
![]()
Thanks for the suggestion.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the name column that I struggle with. Right now I’m looking at a search result and this is what I see.
Expanding the Path column is impossible because the UI constrains itself to the available space. If the UI allowed a column to grow by introducing a horizontal scroll, then the problem would go away.
If I were seriously investigating this search result I’d either move the window to a large monitor and expand its size (obstructing other work on that monitor), or I’d eliminate columns.
I see. If hiding and showing columns would help you, you could at least automate that.
Have you thought about an ultrawide monitor? I have seen them for about $250.
Running DT4 on such a monitor is awesome if you want to view many columns.
Some of you should take a look at AVID Media Composer. Digital video has always been thick with metadata and the amount of columns you could display would outrun any wide screen monitor. MC is old software but their column (a.k.a. Bin* Headings) management is powerful and flexible and I miss it in any other software that has lots of metadata.
Set up columns for a task, save that bin heading view, name it.
Make as many bin heading views as you like. Open up bins switch their bin view and there are the columns you need.
Bins keep that bin view until you change it.
Another thing MC does really well is what some of you have discussed i.e. the ability to scroll your column view and adjust the “split point” so you can keep some columns always visible and scroll others.
There’s also a clever sorting thing where you can shift click a second column heading to make it the second sort criteria. So if you want to sort by location metadata and then time of day timecode you can do that.
I couldn’t describe how exited I would be if DT had at least saveable column view headings.
*a bin in this case is sort of like a DEVONthink group but can only hold media objects not other bins.
Hi DEVONthink team and fellow users ![]()
I’d like to start a small “petition” within this thread to show clear demand for horizontal scrolling in List View (column-based views, including search results).
A lot of us run into the same friction described above:
On laptops or smaller displays, columns get squeezed to unusable widths (e.g., Path, URL, tags, custom metadata).
You can’t expand a key column because the UI constrains total width to the window instead of allowing overflow.
Hover-to-preview helps, but it’s not a substitute for seeing essential metadata at a glance—especially when reviewing search results.
Request: Please implement (or keep, if it already exists internally/experimentally) an option for horizontal scrolling in List View so columns can extend beyond the visible area, like Finder tables. Ideally as a toggle (e.g., “Allow horizontal scrolling in List View”), so users on ultra-wide monitors can keep the current behavior if they prefer.
If you support this request, please reply with:
a simple “+1”
and optionally your use case (laptop workflow, accessibility/visual needs, many columns for search triage, dual-window setup, etc.).
The goal is to make the need visible in one place, with real-world scenarios. Thanks! ![]()
(created with the help of AI)*
*changed from „(created using AI)“
Please write your own posts.
![]()
When I move to my couch to work, I’ll hire a helper to move the monitor to the footstool.
But, seriously, DT is great on a large monitor. I have two 27” monitors usually attached to my laptop. When DT resizing gets troublesome, I just make the window bigger, blocking out other applications. So then I move the other applications to a different monitor.
I’ve been working around this issue since I bought DT2 in 2009. It’s not the end of the world and I’ll just deal with it rather than redoing my office setup. But, if horizontal scrolling is not difficult to implement, I hope the developers give it some priority. It could be as simple as making them aware that there are enough people impacted by this to matter.
Regarding the poll suggestion: is that the best way to communicate this?