Matrix fixed column width keeps resetting

[terracottagull]

I was very excited to see the introducion of the fixed column width optin in the matrix visuals. 

However, I'm coming across some strange behaviour where all the cols corresponding to the 'row' variables keep resetting to the default width.

What I'm doing:

I have my Matrix layout set to 'Tabular'. 

Under Column width I select 'Fixed width' from the top option, then enable Custom widths. I input the different desired widths for the individual columns and it all looks great. However, as soon as I navigate away form the page, or close and reopen the .pbix file, the widths of the columns associated with the row variables reset to the Default width value. 

I have seen advice elsewhere to just set the Default to something more suitable, however, I have multiple row variables that contain data of very different length, so I can't set Default to a value that would suit all. 

Any thought or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[oussamahaimoud]

Hi @terracottagull,

Hope you're doing well!

Here's a solution to try it step by step:

Disable Auto-size width: In the Matrix formatting pane, search for "auto" and turn off Auto-size column width. This is the first thing to verify, though even with "Auto-size column width" turned off, column widths can still reset under certain conditions.

REPT measure trick:

• Create a measure: ColWidth = REPT("X", N) sized to your longest value
• Turn on Auto-size width
• Add the measure to Values
• Turn off Auto-size width
• Remove the measure. This can make column sizes persist, including for new columns added after refresh. However, this trick targets value columns, not row-header columns specifically, results may vary for your use case.

Edit report metadata via PBIP format : Using the Power BI Projects (.pbip) format, you can directly set columnWidth properties in the layouts.json metadata file, which is more reliable than the UI for persistence. This is the most robust approach but requires working outside the UI.

Some useful ressources:

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Matrix-Table-resizing-columns-with-Autosize-column...

https://susheelaakulu.medium.com/fix-matrix-column-width-in-power-bi-5799921b7cf0

https://data-goblins.com/power-bi/set-column-widths

Hope this solution helps! Don't forget to accept as solution ✅ and give kudos 👍 in order to keep helping others.

Best regards,

Oussama (Data Consultant - E

[terracottagull]

Thanks @oussamahaimoud  while I'm familiar with this and similar workarounds, I am specifically interested in making things work with the new fixed width feature rolled out in May. 

[Kedar_Pande]

@terracottagull 

1. Set your Default width to fit the widest row column, then manually widen only the value columns. Ugly but stable.

2. Combine your multiple row fields into a single concatenated column in DAX or Power Query so you only have one row column to size.

[terracottagull]

Hi @Kedar_Pande, 

Thanks for you reply!

1 wouldn't really work, I need 400 vs 90 in col widths and have 3 row cols, so setting them all to 400 would would not be reasonable and push all of my actual values off the screen.

I have actually been using your option 2 for now. It is fine. But I was hoping that a newly rolled out feature would not require such workarounds...