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From: Michael Brand <michael.brand@alumni.ethz.ch>
Subject: spreadsheet: column width behavior(s)
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:53:40 +0100
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To: Org Mode <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>

Hi Carsten, hi all

Are there reasons to only narrow but not to widen columns?

I would like the behavior `fixed width' like

| year | boss                          | facility management assistant  |
|      | <30>                          | <30>                           |
|------+-------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| 2009 | Alice                         | Bob                            |

but with the current implementation get

| year | boss  | facility management assistant |
|      | <30>  | <30>                          |
|------+-------+-------------------------------|
| 2009 | Alice | Bob                           |

which widens the column only if there is too less space left for the column 
content.

As a comparison I can imagine four variants:
<..40>   : `maximum width' (what <40> is today)
<30>     : `fixed width'
<20..>   : `minimum width' (no narrowing)
<20..40> : `width range' (minimum 20, up to 40, narrowing if even longer)

The most commonly used spreadsheet applications offer just one single variant 
out of the above four (right?) and it is `fixed width'. My vote for org-table 
would be the same: That it should support `fixed width' and that this is 
sufficient as the only variant. What is the opinion of other users?

- Michael