Column width resize in modern list

Iron Contributor

I am using modern list, and it is truly great, very well designed.

 

Anyway, I am using 6~7 columns, and "title" column's width is unnecessarily long, thus i have to scroll right to see entire columns.

 

I've tried resize title column's width and saved it, but when I go back and come again, width sizing is not saved.

 

Is there any way to save this resized width or setting defalut width of columns?

61 Replies

Its quite absurd that Microsoft continues to push out products that have many commonly used features and tools missing. Or they make tasks so time consuming to perform. Who really wants to spend countless hours learning and writing scripts? Its like we are stepping back in time, gone are the days of using a GUI to do simple tasks. If it wasn't for CRM and ERP systems that only runs on Windows I would propose the company I work for to swift over to Linux or Mac.

Am I to understand that I cannot make a SharePoint column wider using JSON? Is that why I have wasted so much time looking for examples?

Tracy,

So far I have not seen any solution that will resize the columns to fit in one screen or even to just reduce the size of the first column. If anyone has figured this out, please jump in and explain the solution. Our current "solution" is to use the Classic list mode. We miss out on new features, but at least our users are not complaining about how bad the list is displayed.

The only way I found to force a column to be wider in a sharepoint list is to add a load of characters to the header e.g. -------- Description -------- this forces the minimum width.

 

This does screw up other style views (e.g. Boxed or Preview), so maybe best to create a 2nd calculated column called widedescription and display the wide one only when necessary.

This is really smart and might help in a lot of cases. Thanks for sharing

I have whilst it is an ingenious workaround, it is just that - a workaround.

Come on Microsoft! Surely having the ability to set column widths isn't beyond you. And no, requiring coding or hacks to achieve this is not acceptable.

While the latest suggestion offered will make a column larger there still appears to be no way to make the first column smaller and making columns larger does not make columns fit on a single screen. So, this will not work for our needs. Thanks for sharing the solution though. Some people might just be looking for a way to make columns larger.

Really important to (re-)style columns/views. Because the current styling is creating unwanted behaviours. Btw an option todo a css overwrite in general would be great, then we don't have to wait all this time...

I agree with almost everyone in this thread. This is making Sharepoint Online with Modern Views an extremely tough sell to anyone I'm trying to onboard.

 

This is just one of a multitude of items that cannot be edited. I understand that reducing end user options makes for a more affordable product, easier to scale, easier to upgrade etc but this is bordering ridiculous.

 

Let's see those teams working towards functionality that should have been present out of the box.

Why does Microsoft insist on taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. Modern style is great, except there is no ability to customize which is stupid.

Then they make the title column wide for some reason without the ability to change it.

I give 1 Vote to fix this, easiest way, and best way, give us back access to the CSS!

 

In saying that, I've found a (annoying) workaround.

 

Create a Calculated Column, make the value equal the Title value. Then update the JSON FORMATTER to make it a link if required.

Then hide the title in the view and show the calculated one in its place.

 

now the kicker, I couldnt figure out how to get the ID in the JSON Formatter, so I had to make a middle redirect page, which translated the Title into an ID and forwarded it to the correct place. (this step is only required if you need the title to link to edit the list item)

just with the above, I managed to hack a way to get id as well..

There maybe a better way (I really hope there is) but I made ANOTHER calculated field, and made it =Id I called this IdCopy, then in the json formatter where I set the link i did this:

{
"debugMode": true,
"elmType": "a",
"attributes": {
"target": "_self",
"href": {
"operator": "+",
"operands": [
"/SitePages/JobDetaildev.aspx?JobCode=",
"[$IdCopy]"
]
}
},
"txtContent": "@currentField"
}


ALOT of UGLY work just to get it to stop taking up a set width.

Well, just a about a year I think and still nothing. Some elaborate work arounds but really? I would like to just be able to set the width as an attribute when I set up the column. Not only do I not code but I want users to take control of their own lists. Are all 400+ members of my organisation to learn Java or CSS? 

Well, just a about a year I think and still nothing. Some elaborate work arounds but really? I would like to just be able to set the width as an attribute when I set up the column. Not only do I not code but I want users to take control of their own lists. Are all 400+ members of my organisation to learn Java or CSS? 

100% agree, looking forward to a proper solution

I doubt Microsoft cares enough to resolve this issue. They haven't even fixed ongoing issues that sprung up over a decade ago.

 

I'm expecting them to wait until enough clients move over to their online SharePoint services at which point they'll decide to discontinue providing it.

Dear Microsoft,

 

Please could you provide an update to this topic. It has been nearly 2 years now and there has been no feedback.

 

Thank you,

 

Matt

 

 

I believe that this has been resolved as I noticed a recent change in behaviour . Drag column to desired width and save view . This then appears to stick across different browsers as well .

You're right its half fixed, the widths do save (which is great). but its still not possible to make the title field smaller

Title Column still cannot be edited at all.

 

Widths do save if you're accessing the list itself but I, and I assume many others, are going to be using the List (Preview) to embed it on a page. This is not editable and saved views do not include column widths. 

 

Not even close to resolved.

Totally agree. You still cannot change the width of column on the list (preview) webpart on the page. When can Microsoft address it?