Default column width in Design View

[PasJes]

I find it really annoying when I open up a query and my column widths are always truncated...so if I have a long string in the criteria area or in the 'Update to' area, I ALWAYS have to drag the divider to the right so I can see what the contents of the area are.



Is there a way to have the default view of the columns wider?



ie on this one, I can't see what's in the 'Update to' area without dragging the width. I'd much rather open the query in design view and be able to see everything straight away.

And I know I can view in SQL mode, but I wanted to see if this is possible first.

Thanks in advance.

[davegri]

This will help a little. When you get the double arrow to drag, double click instead. It will adjust the columwidth (bigger or smaller) to the width of the column's widest text.

[Micron]

Most of the time I've found that I'm making them narrower, not wider. I can't argue that an optional setting would be handy for some people, but then what when you have 10 fields with no criteria and they're all way wider than they need to be? I suspect that some things could be created with options but are not because it is quite easy to end up where you want to be without having to program more features into a product. Excel might be another example wrt default column width or row height - no setting for that either (AFAIK). My theory is that it is so easy to manipulate these things so why bother programming a feature for it?

[PasJes]

Thanks for the responses. Yes I know you can double click...and that's all fine when you have a few queries to trawl through.

My problem was I had a bunch of databases, from other people, with about a hundred queries in each where I needed to check...and it became pretty tedious.

I'm guessing the vast majority of cases it's no big deal...but was just wondering if there was something that could make my life a little easier!

No biggie either way...thanks again.

[Micron]

Sorry if I burst a bubble there. I've seen code that wanders through queries and sets column widths, but I think that is all for datasheet view, not design view. Out of curiosity I wondered if one could create a query with no tables and set column widths and save with the idea of using it as a template. Well, you can, but the columns revert back to their original width in design view - at least they do when there's no table field names or criteria in them.

[Edgar]

I gave myself 20 minutes to experiment with this task.

Despite exploring the options form, I discovered that only the font size could be adjusted, and there was no apparent setting for column width in the query builder. Although the tables had a column width setting of one inch, it had no impact on the query builder, as it seems to be a separate entity.

Upon inspecting the Application variable, I couldn't identify any relevant parameters. I even examined the hidden sys tables, but unfortunately, there was no joy. I vaguely recall that Access stores templates in various directories, but I couldn't locate them this time.

Taking a more technical approach, I employed Cheat Engine to pinpoint the memory address responsible for controlling the slider, which turned out to be 01AA75A8. By default, the slider becomes black when you attempt to make a change, if I attempt the changes without moving the slider, I see that the dividers appear at values 114, 229, 344, 459, and so forth for that memory address. If you notice, the dividers are separated by 115 units each. I don't know what these units are, they might depend on your computer resolution (or not). All I was able to do is to successfully lock the column widths by freezing the value in this memory address. I couldn't find a way to set specific column widths. Another memory position, 0C619418, changed as well, but manipulating it did not yield any noticeable effects. While further exploration might reveal some interesting effects, I would need significant motivation to attempt this (again).

If you are determined to address this challenge, you could explore similar tools to identify relevant memory positions and then utilize VBA to set the desired values programmatically. Or wait until someone comes up with the right method.

[NoellaG]

Other option: if you have a lot of large queries to review: open them in SQL view. There you can see all the query at once.