Column Widths: They Don't Add Up

[Dave]

Hello, helpful people!

I have a reporting dashboard built in Excel that has eight mini-charts
on an overview sheet, arranged in two rows of four. The columns
containing the charts are 30 units wide; the rows are 175 units high.
There are 2.5 unit-wide "gutters" between the charts. I'm using Excel
V.X SR1.

As the dashboard evolves, we may add or delete mini-charts. It may be
necessary to have 4 on one row and 3 on the next, with the bottom row
centered under the upper row ... who knows what the client will want.

I imagined that I could redo the overview sheet as a boatload of
2.5-unit-wide columns, and have the charts span 12 columns for a total
of 30 units.

12 x 2.5 = 30, but twelve 2.5-unit-width columns is actually 39.17
units wide.

I'm just guessing that the gridlines have something to do with it.

Any suggestions?

PS: I know that one way to achieve something like this is by using the
"Camera" tool. Let's leave that aside for the moment, because I'm not
too happy with the fuzzy anti-aliased look of the camera tool's images.

PPS: I have strenuously avoided mentioning merged cells here, because
in researching this issue, I have seen several people who would not use
merged cells unless their life depended on it, and then ony after some
considerable thought...

 

[DerekSn [MS]]

Dave, thanks for your email. I'm not sure if I have any good ideas for
you -- I would try merged cells though, they aren't as bad as they are
made out to be heh. You could make a row that has sets of 10 unit
columns, with the top row having charts of 3 of these cells merged and
the bottom row with 4 of these cells merged, in the case of having 4
charts on top and 3 below, making both rows = 120 units wide. Then you
could easy update this to 4 on top and 4 on the bottom etc. without too
much work. You wouldn't have gutters via the columns, but your charts
could be sized to be smaller than the cell.

One reason that the sum of twelve 2.5unit columns is more than 30 might
be that the special column units Excel uses can't really be set to 2.5,
I think you have to go to a nearby number like 2.43 or 2.57.

You could also turn off Gridlines in Preferences->View and use Cell
Borders around data tables that are in the dashboard, creating a free
space for the charts.

Sorry I don't have too many ideas for this one, sounds like an
interesting workbook!

-Derek
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