Matrix Column Auto-size

[Reid_Havens]

Hi there,

So similar to tables and matrixs' there is an option on the new matrix preview to turn on or off column auto-sizing. Even after I turn this off in the preview though it seems to still resize when I drill up/down. This is the only step preventing me from moving a report from Excel into PBI Desktop right now since it makes it difficult to size the object if it constantly widens and narrows.

Thanks,
Reid

[ThomasDay]

Hi--I think there are enough issues that it does.  In addition to the above, I have a matrix that when a model is opened it remains blank and inactive....when I "kick it" by clicking a tab and then clicking back...it loads and functions fine from then on.  Seems like a few kinks to work out on this fabulous visual...and a fix update might be in order if that's possible.  Tom

[v-haibl-msft]

Hi All,

I have severl tests on my side but cannot repro the same issue as you. Please refer to my recorded video below.

Could anyone provide a PBIX file to me which can be used to repro? You can upload it to online file service like OneDrive and share it.

Best Regards,
Herbert

[ThomasDay]

I'll get a .pbix prepped and shortly.  I'm guessing the reason you can't reproduce it with that example is that your column headers are very narrow.  Put in very long column (40-60 characters) descriptions and then set the width to something smaller (15 characters) than your column headers and see what happens.

Also know that I have 5000 potential column headers depending upon user selections and a session will seldom repeat any columns so any settings can't be fixed to a particular column heading value (something that seemed to be the case but I'm not sure.)

Columns headers that I use are long because they concatenate important information for when data is exported to help our users.  But I set the column widths to something that makes reports look good.  There are lots of reasons to have column header lengths longer than the columns widths but that's my example.

Tom

[ThomasDay]

@v-haibl-msft I've shared a .pbix file by PM.  Thank you, Tom

[v-haibl-msft]

@ThomasDay

I’ve got response from the Product Team.

This is actually due to a difference in behavior between the old and the new Matrix. Actually, the old  Matrix is working as you expect not because of turning Auto size to off, it is because you previously resized one instance of the columns. In the old Matrix, resizing any instance of the columns, let’s say “BAYSTATE WING HOSPITAL & MEDICAL CTR-MA-CCN:220030” will result into resizing all the hospitals columns not only the one you resized which means that regardless of the filter you apply all the displayed columns will have the same width. This was seen as a limitation because the user is not able to give different sizes to different instances, so in the new Matrix the size is assigned to the individual instance you resize and will not affect other instances. By filtering through the slicer as shown in your video, you are removing some instances that you have resized and introduced new instances that were never resized before, that’s why the new instances did not honor the size of the old ones. The “Auto size” when switched to off, is not supposed to control this case, i.e. it is not supposed to transfer the sizes of the removed instances to the new ones, it only ensures that the same instance will not change in size during any operations you perform like sorting, filtering, etc..

Best Regards,
Herbert

[ThomasDay]

@v-haibl-msft thank you for that clarification though it is crushingly disappointing!!  It means that we cannot set column widths to a fixed value.  There are soooo many instances when that is important and I'm sure the only reason it wasn't clammored for is that you could do that with the old matrix version.  So the team has taken away an important attribute of the matrices.

...Let's say you are a drug distributor with many thousands of drugs and even classes of drugs with many hundreds/thousands of customers.  There is no possible way that you could set the column widths of every indivual instance on every single matrix that displays selectable columns of either dimension....much less do that on every matrix that you create and then maintain the widths. 

Surely selecting columns from a filter url, say, or slicer is common and column width variation would be a real problem for a report or visual.  To be honest, the current implementation ignores an important use case of being able to set fixed width columns.

Will fixed column widths be coming?  Or tool tips if we're forced to build cryptic abbreviations for column names?  Something please!!!

Thank you,

Tom

[fbeekvel]

Yeah I agree with Tom. That response from the product team doesn't make any sense at all.

[ACGUser]

Same problem here, nothing works! Help please!

[MDelmorio]

I have same problem with a very simple and small matrix. Anything a select changes columns width. In my case column headers are short (Month name abreviation) values are small numbers (X.XXX) and I want to expand column width. It use to work in past release, but when converted to new matrix It cased a massy. Any help please... 

[Anonymous]

Has this been fixed yet? I get why development thought this might be a good idea but no one uses it the way development thought. Everybody drills down and we don't want to reset the column size all the time. Until it is fixed I can't use the matrix in published reports as it will drive people crazy having to resize the columns whenever they drill down.