Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Setting Stable Column Widths in a PivotTable.
Stuart has been building PivotTables for a charity so that they can report on donation patterns over time. The problem he has is that he wants to permanently set the column widths in his PivotTable, but whenever the filter variables for the PivotTable are changed, the column widths reset themselves. Stuart wonders how he can permanently fix all column widths in the PivotTable so they don't change.
This is very easy to do in Excel. After your PivotTable is set up and formatted just the way you want, follow these steps if you are using Excel 2013 or a later version:
Figure 1. The Layout & Format tab of the PivotTable Options dialog box.
If you are using Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 follow these steps instead:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (759) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Setting Stable Column Widths in a PivotTable.
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2020-03-05 02:41:39
Sky
Thanks much! This is super helpful!! That column auto-fit is just ANNOYING!!
I'm using Excel 365, It's on "PivotTableTools" - Analyze >> "PivotTable" (on the left) >> "Options"
2019-07-24 09:43:42
John F
I can't find it now, but somewhere I saw how to set this as the default for pivot tables so that whenever a new pivot table is created this is case. I'd love to be able to do the same for tables and set as the default.
2018-03-02 10:51:58
Charlie Arehart
Thank you for that. FWIW the steps for Excel 2016 also apply to what you show for Excel 2013.
FWIW, I wonder if you may want to revisit this post, to reverse the order and focus on later versions of Excel first. :-)
It does come up as the first result in a google search for "pivot table column width". Some may find it, and be frustrated (as I was) when the first set of steps don't work in their more modern version, because they didn't notice you indicating those were for 2007 and 2010.
Either way, thank you again for going the extra step to cover 2013 and above! :-)
2018-02-28 12:39:43
Keith
This was very helpful. I would like to add that if you have more than one pivot table sharing the same columns, you will have to clear the option for all tables.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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