Fit-to-size all columns

[weshooper]

Currently we can double click in between columns and it will fit-to-size. It'd be wonderful if, when doing this with multiple columns selected, they all magically resized as appropriate.

[fulldecent]

Can you please confirm if Excel, LibreOffice, Numbers does it this way. Or do they do something different?

[weshooper]

@fulldecent I don't have access to Excel or LibreOffice, but here are a few screenshots - after doing that I think the experience in Numbers makes most sense...

Table Tool

Opens with all columns identically sized:

There's no way to resize all columns to fit at the same time. Double-clicking each individual heading resizes the column to the width of maximum data, but headings are obscured:

Google Docs

Opens with all columns identically sized:

Selecting all columns and choosing to resize, does headings and data:

Numbers

Opens with all columns (headings and data) sized to fit:

[fulldecent]

Presently, Table Tool does not allow you to select individual columns. When using the click-drag gesture, a column is selected and then moved to reorder.

Would you please recommend specifically how the resize multiple columns feature might be implemented?

[weshooper]

@fulldecent Thanks for getting back to me! Sure, here's a GIF of how Numbers does it:

1. Opens with all columns (headings and data) sized to fit
2. (To simulate how TableTool opens, I've manually resized each column to approx. the same width in the GIF)
3. Multiple columns can be selected with cmd+click
4. Selected columns can be resized to fit either via a right-click menu, or double-clicking between columns

The aim here is to make it easier for the user to quickly see all data in a CSV via auto-sizing - two issues currently prevent this:

• data in columns is hidden when the fixed/default column width is too narrow for the data within
• data in files (having many columns) may be horizontally scrolled off the screen, because the fixed/default column width is too wide for the data within (so horizontal screen space is wasted)

I think there are three alternative implementations for the feature:

1. Auto-resize all columns to fit when opening a file (my preference, it just works)
2. An 'Auto-resize' button on the toolbar (avoids changing the current open-file behaviour, though adds UI clutter)
3. The ability to select multiple columns, with double-click and/or right-click menu option to auto-resize (less discoverable for the user, and sounds like more work to implement!)