Excel: How Default Column Widths Are Calculated

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 3.0, 4.0, 4.0a
• Microsoft Excel for OS/2, versions 2.2, 2.21, 3.0

SUMMARY

The standard default column width in Microsoft Excel is 8.43 characters; however, the actual default width may vary depending on the width of characters in the font defined for the Normal style.

MORE INFORMATION

The default font in Excel is Helv 10, which creates a standard column width of 8.43 characters. Changing the default font to Helv 8 changes the standard width to 8.5 characters. This discrepancy occurs because of the way that Excel stores the column width information for individual fonts.

Excel begins with a default width of 8 characters and translates this into a number of pixels, depending on the Normal style font. This number is then rounded up to the nearest multiple of 8 pixels so that column scrolling is faster. The pixel width is the number that is stored in Excel's data structures. The number that you view in the Column Width text box is the pixel width re-translated into character units (based on the Normal font) for display. To access the Column Width text box, choose Column Width from the Format menu.

EXAMPLES

   Default Font   Column Width
   ---------------------------

   Courier 10     8.38
   Helv 10        8.43
   Modern 10      8.5
   Roman 10       8.6
   Script 10      8.6
   Tms Rmn 10     8.5

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Excel User's Guide," version 3.0, page 203