Icon Bar with call out
An example of an Icon Bar displaying 'odd' characters in the descriptions.
A client reported to me that when QuickBooks opened, the Icon Bar was displaying ‘odd’ characters in the descriptions. I asked for a definition of ‘odd characters’ to which the reply came, “looks Greek to me.” The client sent me a ‘SnagIt’ of their Icon Bar, shown in the title illustration of this blog.
As you can see, the descriptions look very ‘odd’; but they are not Greek. In reality the icons are showing off their true descriptions in machine language. This kind of corruption can occur when some background program is updating while QuickBooks is open (after hours perhaps) or from a sudden shut down. The file preserving the user’s preferences may get confused (it has amnesia of a sort) and so QB reverts to the behind-the-scenes meanings of the Icons being displayed.
There is an easy fix, that almost always works (at least for me). With QuickBooks open:
- Right click on the Icon bar, and Select the option to “Customize Icon Bar”;
- Click the radial-button for the option to “Show icons only”, then Click “OK” to save your change;
- Close QuickBooks normally, and Restart your Computer;
- Restart QuickBooks and open your company file (log-in under the same user);
- Right click on the Icon Bar and once again select the option to “Customize Icon Bar”
- Click the radial-button to return back to the option to “Show icons and text”
- Once you click “OK” to save the changes, your Icon Bar should show the correct descriptions for each Icon.
Of course, as with 'any/every' file repair, you should ALWAYS make either a back-up, or a windows copy, of your file for safety purposes BEFORE you start the repair.
This is not a very common problem, in my QuickBooks ‘file repair’ history, I have only seen this a few times. Best of luck !