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Zapier Resets Excel Column Width When Adding New Row


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My Zap adds a new row to an excel spreadsheet in OneDrive each time a submission is received in Gravity Forms.

The zap works as expected except that it resets the width of the columns in my spreadsheet every time it adds a row.

Viewers of the spreadsheet are unable to see the data because the columns are too narrow. Submissions come in often, so they constantly have to resize the columns while using the spreadsheet.

Is there a way to configure the Zap or the Excel spreadsheet to prevent the column width from being reset?

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create a Zap that adds a row to an Excel Spreadsheet in OneDrive.
  2. Resize the columns of the spreadsheet manually.
  3. Run the Zap. The width of the columns will be reset.

A similar bug was reported in this thread:

 

Best answer by darrian

Thanks for the suggestions!

I found a workaround to prevent Zapier’s updates from resetting my excel column sizes.

I hit CTRL+A twice to select all of the cells in the sheet, then I set both the column width and row width of every cell and that worked. Using “Home” > “Cells” > “Format” > “Row Height...” and “Column Height...”

@Stefan P. Previously I was setting the column widths the way you described and that was being reset until I also set the row heights.

@ken.a I couldn’t find a setting called “Autofit Column Widths on Update”. From Googling it looks like that may only an option for Pivot Tables. But I could just be missing it.

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15 replies

Troy Tessalone
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  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • February 13, 2024

My team needs the form submissions in Excel.


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6324 replies
  • February 15, 2024

Hi @darrian,

I’m jumping in to see if I can help!

Upon checking our internal notes, this should be due to Microsoft Excel settings called Autofit Column Widths on Update. Can you please check that?

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!


Stefan P.
  • New
  • 1 reply
  • March 26, 2024

Hii Guys,

I think I found a solution for the “collum width reset problem”.
 

You can change the column in Excel width in the triangle menu. 
(In the top left corner between A & 1)
 

 


There you can adjust the column width in pixels, e.g. 300.
 

If Zapier then triggers an automatism and transfers the data to the Excel table, the columns remain the same.
 

The table much prettier this way :-)


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  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • Answer
  • March 26, 2024

Thanks for the suggestions!

I found a workaround to prevent Zapier’s updates from resetting my excel column sizes.

I hit CTRL+A twice to select all of the cells in the sheet, then I set both the column width and row width of every cell and that worked. Using “Home” > “Cells” > “Format” > “Row Height...” and “Column Height...”

@Stefan P. Previously I was setting the column widths the way you described and that was being reset until I also set the row heights.

@ken.a I couldn’t find a setting called “Autofit Column Widths on Update”. From Googling it looks like that may only an option for Pivot Tables. But I could just be missing it.


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6324 replies
  • March 27, 2024

Hi @darrian and @Stefan P.,

I really appreciate you all for sharing the workaround here. This will be helpful to our Community members who might have the similar issue.

Happy Zapping! ⚡️


  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • September 19, 2024

I am having this exact same problem. I tried all of the ideas mentioned above and still have the same problem. 

Every time a new row is added, the column formatting is changed. I need the column width to remain the same every time a new row is added from the Zap. 

I am using Excel online. 

Please help… Can someone send me a Loom video showing how they were able to fix this please! 🙏


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  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • September 19, 2024
henwang wrote:

I am having this exact same problem. I tried all of the ideas mentioned above and still have the same problem.

I am using Excel online.

Please help… Can someone send me a Loom video showing how they were able to fix this please! 🙏

@henwang Sure! Here’s a Loom screen recording of what I did. You may need to open the OneDrive file in Excel Desktop. I don’t know if the Row & Column height options are the same in Excel Online.

In the recording below I press CTRL+A twice to select all of the cells in the sheet, then I set both the column width and row width of every row and column.

 


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • October 1, 2024
darrian wrote:
henwang wrote:

I am having this exact same problem. I tried all of the ideas mentioned above and still have the same problem.

I am using Excel online.

Please help… Can someone send me a Loom video showing how they were able to fix this please! 🙏

@henwang Sure! Here’s a Loom screen recording of what I did. You may need to open the OneDrive file in Excel Desktop. I don’t know if the Row & Column height options are the same in Excel Online.

In the recording below I press CTRL+A twice to select all of the cells in the sheet, then I set both the column width and row width of every row and column.

https://www.loom.com/share/e30d9de817d247d09556ea0e31bc6567?sid=b67e575f-2607-43f8-807b-a419152af08b

 

I still have continued issues with resizing after following your instructions. All it took was one row to be added for it to be out of order once again. 

 


  • New
  • 2 replies
  • December 13, 2024
rileyMEK wrote:
darrian wrote:
henwang wrote:

I am having this exact same problem. I tried all of the ideas mentioned above and still have the same problem.

I am using Excel online.

Please help… Can someone send me a Loom video showing how they were able to fix this please! 🙏

@henwang Sure! Here’s a Loom screen recording of what I did. You may need to open the OneDrive file in Excel Desktop. I don’t know if the Row & Column height options are the same in Excel Online.

In the recording below I press CTRL+A twice to select all of the cells in the sheet, then I set both the column width and row width of every row and column.

https://www.loom.com/share/e30d9de817d247d09556ea0e31bc6567?sid=b67e575f-2607-43f8-807b-a419152af08b

 

I still have continued issues with resizing after following your instructions. All it took was one row to be added for it to be out of order once again. 

 

I needed to set the row and column height in PIXELs and not in ‘units’ for it to work. When I set it in units, it was still resized with every new row from Zapier.


SamB
Community Manager
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  • Community Manager
  • 7296 replies
  • December 20, 2024

Thanks for letting us know ​how you got it working, @lys! Really appreciate you taking the time to share this information with the Community! 🧡

Hopefully setting the row and column in pixels rather than units will resolve things for ​@rileyMEK as well! 🤞


  • New
  • 2 replies
  • December 20, 2024
SamB wrote:

Thanks for letting us know ​how you got it working, @lys! Really appreciate you taking the time to share this information with the Community! 🧡

Hopefully setting the row and column in pixels rather than units will resolve things for ​@rileyMEK as well! 🤞

I should mention that I needed to set width and height in pixels for the whole sheet (menu - cells > format > set column width/set row height). Setting the width for just one column (right click > set width) doesn’t seem to work. (That is: it just gets reset every time Zapier adds a new sheet). 


SamB
Community Manager
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  • Community Manager
  • 7296 replies
  • December 23, 2024

Thanks so much for clarifying that ​@lys—much appreciated! 🤗 


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • February 1, 2025
ken.a wrote:

Hi @darrian,

I’m jumping in to see if I can help!

Upon checking our internal notes, this should be due to Microsoft Excel settings called Autofit Column Widths on Update. Can you please check that?

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

 

Hi ​@ken.a , unfortunately this setting only applies to pivot tables. NOT normal Tables.

Also, the global setting of all column widths to one unified width is not working.

 

Is there any option to turn off the auto width feature?


JammerS
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 2203 replies
  • February 4, 2025

Hi ​@JosefCS,

 

Zapier doesn't offer a global setting to turn off the auto width feature, as column widths adjust automatically based on content. While this can be frustrating, feedback is being shared with the product team for future updates. In the meantime, you can manually adjust column widths (though this only persists for the current session) or use external tools like Google Sheets or Excel to format tables before importing them into Zapier.

 

Let us know if you have any further questions. Looking forward to your response.