Unable to get column width I want in Excel 2007

[Instructor44]

,I am an instructor teaching Excel 2007. There is an assignment where my
students have to change the width of several columns. They would like a
column width of 15.00. If they use the mouse to change the width, they can
get either 14.75, 14.88 or 15.13. If they right click on the column and click
Column Width then enter 15 or 15.00 and click ok, they still get 15.13 when
checking with the mouse. As I'm grading these assignments I have attempted to
change the widths and find I'm not able to get 15.00 either. Can anyone help
me?

 

[Gary Keramidas]

works ok here. i get 14.86, 15.00, 15.14.

 

[Michael R]

I don't have a definitive answer but found that the increments that Excel
uses to determine column width depend on the default font defined in your
"Normal" style. (see also http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214123)

What font does your "Normal" style have?

 

[Mike H]

I can replicate this but not reliably.

Sometimes switching between fonts and then changing column width causes a
column width setting of 15 to change to 14.86 but the strange part is not
always. It happened most often switching between Calibri and Arial font.

Mike

 

[Bill Sharpe]

,I am an instructor teaching Excel 2007. There is an assignment where my
students have to change the width of several columns. They would like a
column width of 15.00. If they use the mouse to change the width, they can
get either 14.75, 14.88 or 15.13. If they right click on the column and click
Column Width then enter 15 or 15.00 and click ok, they still get 15.13 when
checking with the mouse. As I'm grading these assignments I have attempted to
change the widths and find I'm not able to get 15.00 either. Can anyone help
me?

I would take the engineering approach that 14.86 or 15.13 is close
enough to 15.00 for all practical purposes and give your students a
passing grade on this part of their assignment. A column width that's
off by just one percent is close enough.

I taught Excel for several years as part of an introductory computer
class. Try teaching them macros, goal-seeking, or pivot tables. :<)

Bill

 

[Instructor44]

My computer at home uses Body Font 11. However I will check with the
computers at school to see if it is different. I think it's interesting that
I can change to 15 on my own worksheets, but not on a student's that I have
downloaded. This has been a question for a few semesters and I thought
"Now's the time to figure this out." I also wonder what is normal for the
publisher. My students download their files from the publisher's website.

Thank you, Michael for you response. This gets me thinking!

 

[Instructor44]

Hi Mike,
Thank you for checking on this. I tell my students that if they have
questions as to why something isn't working the way they expect, to use the
Microsoft website and forums. This is a great tool ! I hope it's okay to post
the answers I received on our Blackboard Discussion group so my students can
see what resources are available to them.

 

[Instructor44]

Hey Bill,
My son-in-law is an aeronautic engineer and "close enough" is never good
enough for him. I agree with you though on practicality and my students get
the points. Each one of them emailed me with this "problem." This assignment
has been bothering me for a few semsters now because I couldn't answer the
question. I want to be able to explain to them--"why." Now I have a few
things they can try. I have a feeling it may be the publisher's template, but
I would have never thought of that without getting on forums and asking the
question. Macros, goal-seeking and pivot tables are up next! Let the fun
begin!

Thank you for your reply, Bill.

 

[Bob I]

Ask your son-in-law how many decimal places he rounds PI off to! <grin>

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Hey Bill,
My son-in-law is an aeronautic engineer and "close enough" is never good
enough for him. I agree with you though on practicality and my students get
the points. Each one of them emailed me with this "problem." This assignment
has been bothering me for a few semsters now because I couldn't answer the
question. I want to be able to explain to them--"why." Now I have a few
things they can try. I have a feeling it may be the publisher's template, but
I would have never thought of that without getting on forums and asking the
question. Macros, goal-seeking and pivot tables are up next! Let the fun
begin!

Thank you for your reply, Bill.

We had an analytical engineer who used an HP scientific calculator for
most of his work -- this was long before PC's came into general usage --
and he would write down the answers complete to 8 or 10 decimal places
displayed by the calculator for all his work. At the time I used a slide
rule, which was usually "close enough."

We both later graduated to computer use, but I still often insert the
value of pi as 3.14 or 3.1416. Excel's Pi function returns the number
3.14159265358979, accurate to 15 digits. Wikipedia has a fascinating
article about pi. I note this excerpt: For example, a value (of pi)
truncated to 11 decimal places is accurate enough to calculate the
circumference of a circle the size of the earth with a precision of a
millimeter.

Just to add an item to your original subject, Excel 2007 on my computer
allows me to pick 15.00 as a column width and have the value stick.

Bill