Turn Off AutoFit Column Width For All Pivot Tables
What This VBA Code Does
If you live dangerously and have multiple Pivot Tables sporadically on a single sheet (I’ve dabbled a few times…), you may have noticed whenever you refresh your Pivots, the column widths can get screwed up.
This is because by default Excel will autofit the column width specifically for the Active Pivot Table you refreshed (ignoring width requirements of all other Pivot Tables). This consequently can make data in your other Pivot Tables appear in the dreaded “###” format!
After constantly having to go through and re-adjust my column widths in a particular file of mine, the decision was made that I needed to turn off the Pivot Table setting called “Autofit column widths on update”. Now I didn’t want to go through and manually change this setting for all my pivot tables, so I quickly whipped up a VBA macro to do it for me!
VBA Code:
This VBA code will show you how to loop through all the PivotTables on the currently selected worksheet and turn off the Autofit setting. This will prevent all your PivotTables from adjusting column widths based on the PivotTable that is currently getting refreshed.
Sub TurnAutoFitOff_PivotTables()
'PURPOSE: Turn off Autofit Column Width On Update Setting for every Pivot Table
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim pvt As PivotTable
'Loop through each PivotTable in ActiveSheet
For Each pvt In ActiveSheet.PivotTables
pvt.HasAutoFormat = False
Next pvt
End SubUsing VBA Code Found On The Internet
Now that you’ve found some VBA code that could potentially solve your Excel automation problem, what do you do with it? If you don’t necessarily want to learn how to code VBA and are just looking for the fastest way to implement this code into your spreadsheet, I wrote an article (with video) that explains how to get the VBA code you’ve found running on your spreadsheet.
Getting Started Automating Excel
Are you new to VBA and not sure where to begin? Check out my quickstart guide to learning VBA. This article won’t overwhelm you with fancy coding jargon, as it provides you with a simplistic and straightforward approach to the basic things I wish I knew when trying to teach myself how to automate tasks in Excel with VBA Macros.
Also, if you haven’t checked out Excel’s latest automation feature called Power Query, I have put together a beginner’s guide for automating with Excel’s Power Query feature as well! This little-known built-in Excel feature allows you to merge and clean data automatically with little to no coding!
How Do I Modify This To Fit My Specific Needs?
Chances are this post did not give you the exact answer you were looking for. We all have different situations and it’s impossible to account for every particular need one might have. That’s why I want to share with you: My Guide to Getting the Solution to your Problems FAST! In this article, I explain the best strategies I have come up with over the years to get quick answers to complex problems in Excel, PowerPoint, VBA, you name it!
I highly recommend that you check this guide out before asking me or anyone else in the comments section to solve your specific problem. I can guarantee that 9 times out of 10, one of my strategies will get you the answer(s) you are needing faster than it will take me to get back to you with a possible solution. I try my best to help everyone out, but sometimes I don’t have time to fit everyone’s questions in (there never seem to be quite enough hours in the day!).
I wish you the best of luck and I hope this tutorial gets you heading in the right direction!
After 10+ years of creating macros and developing add-ins, I've compiled all the hacks I wish I had known years ago!
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Chris Newman
Chris is a finance professional and Excel MVP recognized by Microsoft since 2016. With his expertise, he founded TheSpreadsheetGuru blog to help fellow Excel users, where he shares his vast creative solutions & expertise. In addition, he has developed over 7 widely-used Excel Add-ins that have been embraced by individuals and companies worldwide.