The problem

In Power BI there is no column auto resize feature for table and matrix visuals.

The column size is based on the default column name.

You can resize a single column by clicking and dragging from the right hand side of the column.

Sadly double clicking won't resize the column like in Excel.

In the rest of this blog we will cover several techniques to achieve consistent resizing.

Option 1

The easiest method to make all the columns the same sizes is to rename them to the same thing.

In the Visualizations | Columns section right click on each field and choose Rename for this visual setting each column to the same number of X characters.

You can also double click to rename.

This will adjust the columns in the visual to have the same width.

Bonus points if your user can still understand what each column contains!

Go to Visualizations | Column headers | Auto-size width and turn it Off to prevent resizing.

Now columns won't change width automatically.

Now change the column names from X back to something more useful.

Sadly you will need to repeat this trick for any new columns.

Option 2

If you have the same columns in another page or report you can copy the current column settings.

I want to copy the formatting from the top table on the bottom one.

Select the formatted table and then choose Home | Format painter from the ribbon.

This copies the current visual's formatting options.

Move your cursor (now a paint brush) over to the target visual and left click.

The Visual and General format options will be copied to the new table visual.

This will adjust all the matching columns to the same width leaving the others unchanged.

Now you can copy this table back to its original page or report.

Option 3

Another way to change the column width is using the Custom format under Visualizations | General | Data format | Format options | Format drop down.

This only formats the column in the visual.

In the Format code enter a number of X characters equal to how wide you want the column to be.

You could use a different character.

This will replace the column values with Xs which you can add or remove to get the right size.

You could achieve a similar effect by increasing the number of decimal places.

In the Format visual pane, go to Visual | Column headers | Auto-size width and turn it Off to prevent resizing.

Now columns won't change width automatically.

In the Format visual pane, switch to General | Data format | Format options | Format and change the formatting back to what ever type you want.

I want a Whole number.

This technique works well for Matrix visuals and numeric columns in Table visuals.

Repeat this for each column you want to format.

Option 4

If you want the greatest level of control and don't mind getting your hands dirty this final method is for you.

Dragging columns around is so imprecise, I want more control!

From the ribbon choose File | Save As and change the type to Power BI project file (pbip) instead of the usual pbix.

There are 3 save options pbix, pbit and the one we want pbip.

Navigate in the file explorer to where you saved the file and open the folder with the name ending in .Report

Each folder contains information about your report.

Open the report.json file in Notepad or using your chosen editor.

I can hear some of you laughing as you open your Notepad ++ versions.

This contains all the information about your different visuals and custom formats.

Use CTRL and F to open the search box then enter columnWidth to find your table.

This section lists the column names and their respective width properties.

The Value property is the column width and the metadata shows which column it is.

The name of the column appears after the width which feels slightly odd.

Change the Value to the width you want the column to be making sure to keep the D after the number.

I have changed my column width to 100D to start.

Repeat this for each column then save the json file and reopen the Power BI report.

My In Stock column could do with being a bit bigger to prevent word wrap!

All this raises the question of why they haven't built in a auto resize or at least the ability to change multiple columns at once!