One powerpivot table column adjustable width, the others fixed?

Question

Hi all,

I've got a PP table whose first column is a row grouping from a hierarchy, and the remaining cols are aggregate measure values for the row under consideration.

I've set the table column widths to be fixed because I didn't want the sheet jumping all around every time a slicer is clicked.

But I do need the hierarchy column to change as the user drills down.

Is it possible to set 1 column's width to be changeable, while the others remain fixed?

thanks,

sff

Answer 1

sff -

I'm not aware of a way to disable the pivot option "Autofit column widths on update" for just some columns. 

Couple of quick ideas though:

- Could make your measure names as wide as you want the columns to be (pad the name so that smaller numbers don't cause the width to collapse).  Then you can leave autofit on.

- Try the other layouts to see if those might work for you.  Specifically, in the pivot Design tab, switch to Report Layout -> Show in Report Form or Show in Tabular Form.  Those will give the lower levels of the hierarchy their own column that you can work with the width separately.

There's probably a way to do it with VBA.  Since this is not specific to PowerPivot and is a more general Excel requirement, you might get some other ideas by posting on the Excel forum or on MrExcel's forum.

Hope that helps.

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Brent Greenwood, MS, MCITP, CBIP
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http://brentgreenwood.blogspot.com