03-25-2003

Size Matters

One of the neatest tips I've come across (and I'm sorry, I don't remember where) is this one that relates to adjusting the column sizes in Windows directory programs.

When you open Windows Explorer, you typically see a listing on the left side that shows a tree outline of all the folders on the device, and on the right, a listing of the folders and files on the current branch of the tree. You probably already know that you can click on the headers of these right-hand columns to change the sort order. Handy stuff, if you need to see what you''ve been working on most recently.

You may also know that if put your cursor on the vertical separator between column names and double click, the columns on either side will adjust to accommodate the widest item in the column.
What I didn't know was that if you click on the white space in the folder first, and then hold CTRL and press the "gray plus" button (the big + key on the right side of the numeric keyboard), all of the columns will widen or narrow to accommodate the widest data within them.

There's a variation of that in EXCEL, where you can optimize the column widths by selecting all the columns (click on a column letter, then hold shift and click on another to select all the columns between them), and then double click on one of the separators and all columns will shift.

Look for this behavior in every case where Windows has columns. Sometimes I suspect they put this stuff into the code so they can tell who's a geek and who's an amateur.

- Bill Hudgins