Question

How to get an Excel column width in centimeters?

Asked by: JulienVan

Hello,

In Excel, the unit of column width is the point.
Using VSTO, Excel application object includes a method CentimetersToPoints but not a method PointsToCentimeters.

Would you know a method to convert a width in points to centimeters? Is it strictly proportional, or does it depend of the police or a graphical object?

Thanks by advance

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Asked On
2009-10-27 at 01:54:20ID24846452
Tags

Excel

,

VSTO

,

width

,

centimeters

,

C#

Topics

VSTO

,

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

,

Microsoft Word

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: chris_bottomleyPosted on 2009-10-27 at 01:58:00ID: 25670250

Hello JulienVan,

Why not divide instead i.e.

value in points / centimeterstopoints(1)

Regards,

chris_bottomley

 

by: JulienVanPosted on 2009-10-27 at 02:05:07ID: 25670304

That's an excellent idea, I'll try this.

 

by: jppintoPosted on 2009-10-27 at 02:06:01ID: 25670311

Take a look at this to see if it helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q213422/

jppinto

 

by: JulienVanPosted on 2009-10-27 at 04:15:08ID: 25670991

Thanks for the link jppinto,

So I cannot just convert the width from points to cm because column widths depend on the width of the font defined for the Normal style of the workbook. A column width of 8.43 means that 8.43 of the default font's characters will fit into a cell.

I don't really understand the macro to set a width in centimeters, would you know a way to this in the other side, to get the column width in centimeters?

 

by: jppintoPosted on 2009-10-27 at 04:27:46ID: 25671079

The macro from the link is all commented so I don't know what else I can explain to you!

Are you talking about this macro?

Sub ColumnWidthInCentimeters()
 
    Dim cm As Single, points As Integer, savewidth As Integer
    Dim lowerwidth As Integer, upwidth As Integer, curwidth As Integer
    Dim Count As Integer
 
    ' Turn screen updating off.
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    ' Ask for the width in inches wanted.
    cm = Application.InputBox("Enter Column Width in Centimeters", _
        "Column Width (cm)", Type:=1)
    ' If cancel button for the input box was pressed, exit procedure.
    If cm = False Then Exit Sub
    ' Convert the inches entered to points.
    points = Application.CentimetersToPoints(cm)
    ' Save the current column width setting.
    savewidth = ActiveCell.ColumnWidth
    ' Set the column width to the maximum allowed.
    ActiveCell.ColumnWidth = 255
    ' If the points desired is greater than the points for 255
    ' characters...
    If points > ActiveCell.Width Then
        ' Display a message box because the size specified is too
        ' large and give the maximum allowed value.
        MsgBox "Width of " & cm & " is too large." & Chr(10) & _
            "The maximum value is " & _
            Format(ActiveCell.Width / 28.3464566929134, _
            "0.00"), vbOKOnly + vbExclamation, "Width Error"
        ' Reset the column width back to the original.
        ActiveCell.ColumnWidth = savewidth
        ' Exit the Sub.
        Exit Sub
    End If
    ' Set the lowerwidth and upper width variables.
    lowerwidth = 0
    upwidth = 255
    ' Set the column width to the middle of the allowed character
    ' range.
    ActiveCell.ColumnWidth = 127.5
    curwidth = ActiveCell.ColumnWidth
    ' Set the count to 0 so if it can't find an exact match it won't
    ' go on indefinitely.
    Count = 0
    ' Loop as long as the cell width in is different from width
    ' wanted and the count (iterations) of the loop is less than 20.
    While (ActiveCell.Width <> points) And (Count < 20)
        ' If active cell width is less than desired cell width.
        If ActiveCell.Width < points Then
            ' Reset lower width to current width.
            lowerwidth = curwidth
            ' set current column width to the midpoint of curwidth
            ' and upwidth.
            Selection.ColumnWidth = (curwidth + upwidth) / 2
        ' If active cell width is greater than desired cell width.
        Else
            ' Set upwidth to the curwidth.
            upwidth = curwidth
            ' Set column width to the mid point of curwidth and lower
            ' width.
            Selection.ColumnWidth = (curwidth + lowerwidth) / 2
        End If
        ' Set curwidth to the width of the column now.
        curwidth = ActiveCell.ColumnWidth
        ' Increment the count counter.
        Count = Count + 1
    Wend
End Sub
                                              
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by: chris_bottomleyPosted on 2009-10-27 at 04:30:20ID: 25671097

If what you want is the column width in inches then how about:

(activecell.Offset(0,1).left - activecell.left)/25.4

i.e. the left return is in millimeters, and the column to the right likewise and all I do is take the differene and convert to inches?

Chris

 

by: roryaPosted on 2009-10-27 at 05:14:49ID: 25671479

Can I ask what you are actually trying to achieve by doing this?

 

by: JulienVanPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:19:57ID: 25672056

Thanks for your comments,

@jppinto: Yes, it is this macro, but I just want to get the width of a cell in centimeter, not to set it.

@chris_bottomley: That's an excellent idea, I tried this but the Range.Left property returns a value with same unit as cell width, not in centimeters but depending on default font.

@rorya: I'm working on a project where I export specific values of a worksheet into an ASCII file, and I need the values of cell widths in centimeters to use it in other custom programs.

 

by: ketkanaPosted on 2009-10-28 at 02:34:07ID: 25681232

If it helps, in typography terms, 1cm = 37.8pixels (Approx). Press and hold the control key and then click the dividing line between the column headings (ie between A+B, B+C etc ) to get a visual indication.

 

by: JulienVanPosted on 2009-10-28 at 02:57:41ID: 25681348

Thanks for your comment ketkana, I'd like to get the cell size with some C# code, maybe if it's possible to get the pixel width with some code I can transform it to centimeters using screen resolution.

 

by: roryaPosted on 2009-10-28 at 03:12:54ID: 25681446

If you use the Width property of a Range rathe than the ColumnWIdth property, it is in points. And there are 72 points to an inch... :)

 

by: JulienVanPosted on 2009-10-28 at 03:44:13ID: 25681660

Sorry experts, it's all my fault, I was using the ColumnWidth property instead of Width as mentioned by rorya. Width property returns the property value in points, so that I can easily convert to centimeters. Thank you all for your help.

 

by: chris_bottomleyPosted on 2009-10-28 at 03:49:35ID: 25681714

Glad we were collectively able to get there ... the key (in my opinion) was Rory's last post.

Chris

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