Column widths - Access 2013 - Changing the column width to an exact fractional number & Access then changing that number I set

Question

Hello I am doing school assignments for Access 2013, we have to turn these into a program called SAM and one of the questions I get continuously wrong because Access changes the width size after I set it. SAM requires this column width to be set exactly at 17.125, when I set it it then changes automatically to 17.1296

I was only able to find this information in regards to Excel that would explain this behavior:

When you change the width of a column to a fractional number, the column width may be set to a different number depending on the font used in the Normal style. For example, with a Normal style font of Arial, if you attempt to change the width of a column to 8.5, the column is set to 8.57 or 65 pixels. This behavior occurs because of the translation of font characters to pixel units. Fractional pixel units cannot be displayed; therefore, the column width rounds to the nearest number that results in a whole pixel unit. 

It stands to reason for me that this information would hold true across all Microsoft products and perhaps even across all products that would use fonts but my teacher believes this only applies to Excel. He's said he's never seen this behavior and none of his other students have had an issue with it.

Can someone help clarify why Access 2013 changes my column width after I set it, and if there is any way I can stop it from doing that so I can turn these assignments in for full credit?

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

Beth,

please feel free to show your teacher this thread because I can confirm this behavior as well. I've had both control and column widths and heights and other measurements change due to printer drivers, screen resolutions, fonts, form size etc. 

The amount of the change is usually in the third or fourth decimal place so it si insignificant.

Answer 2

Beth

I can verify that Access does indeed change widths based on the font used but also on the Grid numbers of a form. And not only columns, but controls such as text boxes, too. I've seen it happen lots of times over my many years of developing Access applications. You might be able to prevent it by increasing the Grid X and Grid Y properties of the form. The higher the number, the more accepting the form is to small fractions.

By the way, if you show your teacher that Access is actually changing your settings he really has no leg to stand on.

Answer 3

It is an online learning program called SAM. We use it as a required tool for half of our assignments. You get a set of instructions to follow for each program, then you follow those instructions and upload it to this program. The program reviews to see if you completed all the tasks that you were assigned to do. If you did you get credit for that task, it's so far been a nice program to work with but I do think this one aspect should be reviewed. It wouldn't let me start a ticket about the issue though because I'm not an instructor.

http://www.cengage.com/sam/

Answer 4

What could require specific column widths?

Answer 5

Thanks Bill and Scott,

I am going to send this post to him, I had already showed him photographic evidence of what was happening and found the clipping from Excel that would explain this behavior and sent that in. It just wasn't enough so I thought I would ask some very wise people what thier experiences have been!

I agree too Scott that a .0046 difference shouldn't matter but the program where these are uploaded to requires us to have it exactly at the measure of 17.125, meaning I would never be able to get this right because of this behavior. It's also not so much I prove in this one assignment but that I have multiple other Access assignments behind this so if I run into it again and again it would become very problematic.

I really appreciate your assistance and advice!

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