A Small Excel Annoyance

Let’s face it, there are some small annoyances within many of the software programs we use. This is, of course, also true of a few in Microsoft Excel.

Take for instance the way Excel changes the column widths when you refresh the data in one of your Pivot Tables. You’ve got your table looking smart and professional, you refresh your data and, Bamm, it’s a bit of a mess!

So how do you maintain your chosen column width without having to reformat after every refresh? There are a few good ways of doing this, but the easiest and most effective is to do the following:

1.   Right-click your table and go to PivotTable Options

2.   Click on the Layout & Format tab

3.   In the Format grouping at the bottom, remove the checkmark from Autofit column width on update

Simple as that. Oftentimes, the best solutions are modest and elegant. Give it a try, and get rid of one of the small annoyances in your Excel work.