Set Fixed Column Width in Matrix in Power BI

[@davidbriggs7734]

I'm responding to the issue with a rolling 13 months where the new month doesn't respect the existing column width. Here's an idea. Pick a Fixed Width Font such as Consolas. Then, create a New Column where you add a fixed number of spaces to the month name such that all month names end up with the same length: Fixed Width Month Name = [Month Name] & REPT(" ", 10 - LEN([Month Name])) Thus, the column name itself sets the column width. You'll also have to turn off the column header word wrap -- I discovered that Power BI ignores trailing spaces in the column header if word wrap is turned on.

[@BIGorilla]

Hey David. Absolutely! Thanks for adding that. That should work as long as the month names take up a width at least as wide as the widest number. What you could do to add an invisible character, is copy the following character and paste it in there: "⠀". It's not a regular space but the U+2800 "Braille Pattern Blank" Character. It has worked for me to add blank spaces to measures in the values field, or to columns. Cheers!

[@happytimesvlogs]

@@BIGorillai eventually used Month Name Fixed Width = REPT(UNICHAR(10240),5) & [Month Name] & REPT(UNICHAR(10240),5) and it worked like a charm. thank you for posting this.

[@shahabh8942]

this works if you're not using slicers. Once you apply filters via a slicer it starts to reset the auto-width, even though it's turned off. Any thoughts on a workaround?

[@mienzillaz]

Auto size do not work. 1. When you have dynamic measure matrix won't update itself until something will be changed directly in matrix 2. Switching tabs in PBI desktop still changes columns width. Of course not your fault, MS did awful job here

[@BIGorilla]

What you can also do, is click a column in your matrix (sort it). Or you can click on refresh visuals in the performance analyser. Both will force an update of the visuals. But yes. Absolutely horrific behavior of the tool, YIKES

[@petercsapo3403]

If someone wants to fix the size of the columns with more measure, simply rename the measue name to the length of the width they want. To make this not visible, fill in the unnecessary characters with space. E.g. 16x space+Spain+16x space

[@tony9146]

It is absurd that PowerBi makes us do all this work just to make a column fit the size of the page.

[@pietjehans206]

Unfortunatly there are a lot of exceptions when this doesn't work.

[@ezekiel0606]

Fantastic Workaround!

[@Phoenixspin]

You didn't leave the pleasing output on the screen for very long. I wasn't pleased. I felt cheated.

[@BIGorilla]

Haha who knows it may come back later :)

[@ushakiranmai3019]

Hi @BI Gorilla. Could you please suggest me how to achieve this in case of more than one measure.

[@gmartinezm]

Thanks for this video, I have a question, what if you always want to see ALL the countries and show up 0 when no data? THoughts?

[@fr1sket363]

This is a good trick when your column headers dont change. I have a report where i have a matrix with a rolling 13 months in the column headers. unfortunately when the old month rolls off and the new one rolls one, the new month does not respect the existing column width, it's maddening. A better solution would be for the power bi devs to add a fixed column width setting, like excel has 🤔. Maybe one day 😁.

[@BIGorilla]

No solution for that one yet. Perhaps use index numbers in the headers.. And create a separate header with the month numbers? Separate as in a different visual just above it. Not ideal, but it's something. Cheers

[@fr1sket363]

@@BIGorilla thanks 😀

[@aliyanrazzaq7521]

What if we have multiple Values? How can we adjust same width for all of them?

[@Kev3542]

Excellent workaround. Thanks.

[@sh3ll451]

Very cool, I'll be using this! :)

[@BIGorilla]

Awesome Matthew! It's a temporary solution for as long as the Power BI team doesn't implement a better way. But it works, enjoy!

[@luisfernandomacedo1451]

Great! Do you know how can I freeze the first column?

[@vishaljhaveri7565]

Auto-Size column width. Turn on auto-size column width. Create a measure, say, Measurex = REPT("|", 10) which will give "|" symbol 10 times. Replace 10 with an appropriate number. And then pass this measure in values. Switch of Auto-Size column width. Replace the Measurex with required/actual measure.

[@knowtechwithaman7254]

If I have 7-8 measures as columns in matrix, it doesn't work. Pls let me know

[@16mohitkumar]

Nice trick :) Thanks for sharing

[@Mex_Music]

Just what I was looking for, thanks!

[@kummithavenkatareddy2302]

How to increase the height of row in Matrix?

[@julianazhou7676]

Looks like very smart, so I save it for later.

[@thehaijon]

Thanks a lot! It worked!

[@rchong3289]

Thanks, really useful. I have a common repeating situation to show 12 months column in matrix but the numbers keep changing so sometimes even I made the width fixed some cells would be longer than the initial fix width, is it possible to auto scale the whole matrix to be smaller if the final total width is outside the rectangle ?

[@BIGorilla]

Unfortunately, the only option right now is to have the width as auto, or set it manually. When your widest cell becomes even wider, the fixed width option does not automatically adjust. David Briggs suggested as idea in the comments, and I added a suggestion there too. Perhaps it can help you :) Regards, Rick

[@lildebao6934]

Thx a lot

[@Buxoylike]

Nice trick but unfortunately does not work if you don't have columns in your matrix.

[@BIGorilla]

Hey otabek, that sounds about right. Without columns how could you need a fixed width column? Help me understand 😁

[@akpokemon]

@@BIGorilla lol

[@monikaklima5415]

Hi, thank you for a trick. Any idea how to use it in case of more than one measure displayed in months? Thank you in advance!

[@BIGorilla]

Hi Monika, Yes! You can add the same logic within those two measures (perhaps as a variable). After returning the characters in the columns (for both measures) you can turn off the auto-size column width. Then change back the measure to the original calculation. Hope that helps!

[@monikaklima5415]

@@BIGorilla Hi there, thanks for a quick answer. At the end I found out that I need another solution as my column headers / measure names are too long and I would like to wrap them all at once, not one by one by each month, by some trick. This one works only for columns wider than the column name or? Thank you anyhow. Best regards, Monika

[@monikaklima5415]

It is ok, just if somebody else is looking for the same: here I found the solution to my specific task: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZmTmJaVa9yngpI thank you.

[@bobbobertson7568]

Swedes are awesome! My boss is going to love this

[@BIGorilla]

Whereas I lived in Stockholm for a while I'm not actually Swedish. But glad to read you're sharing the content :)

[@akpokemon]

@@BIGorilla your manner of speaking reminded me of PewDiePie, who is Swedish. So I thought you might be too. I apparently wasn't too far off

[@Deoreth]

NIce

[@BIGorilla]

Simple but effective. Curious. What workarounds do you use in Power BI?