Hi @lozanaross , @wetneb , could you assign this issue to me, please?

Iterating on this issue of letting users control and resize column width, here areat 2 (two) alternative solutions that can both work together or separately.

They are:

1. The dragging motion , as mentioned by @lozanaross
   As stated in the issue, the dragging motion is most likley the preferred and most user centric approach to letting users resize columns by simply dragging their cursor from one end to the other to change the widths of columns. However, resizing column width wll definitely affect the data that is contained in each column as well as its height.

in my iteration, when a user extends the width of a column, it causes the data contained to spread in order to adjust to the column width. Likewise, when column width is shortened, the data contained therefore, breaks into more lines to fit into the shortened column , which in turn elongates the height of each column and row.

The above are shown in these screenshots:

2. Alternative proposition.
   Adding the "Resize this column" action/option to edit column dropdown.

This alternative proposition, which can also work alongside the dragging option ,adds the option to resize columns to the edit column options available to OpenRefine users and just below the option to remove a column.

On click, the user is shown a modal to add their desired column width and save and on save, the width added is automatically applied on the column the user chose to resize.

This alternative is further explained in the below screenshots;

Here's a link to fidn all screenshot designs :
https://www.figma.com/file/W3X6vO1Mn36xdkaGPz8cx6/OpenRefine-Issues?node-id=57-3952&t=AFBjN2UUUa6h1iSi-4

@Lydiaofficial is it a click, hold button, drag? holding mouse buttons is sometimes cumbersome for folks. It's a small accessibility issue in some regards. Would be nice to avoid having to hold down the mouse button. A click, drag around until you like it, then click again to release... would be my preferred choice if that's possible. Or some other alternative.

@thadguidry I understand the accessibility issue that holding mouse buttons can cause , so rather, it is a click and drag.

The idea is that when users hover on the column lines on the left or right, the drag icon appears and they can click and drag and then click to release.

So yes, it is a "click and drag until you like it and click to release " and definitely is possible.

@Lydiaofficial @wetneb I'm not sure this issue is so appropriate for the Outreachy group. My advice here is not to reinvent the wheel.

Resizing columns in both Excel and Google Sheets (as indicated in my original formulation of the issue) works in exactly the same way (with same mouse cursor design even) and it's thus a very familiar behaviour. The dragging design mockups above miss the point that dragging should only be activated in the title region of each column - enabling dragging anywhere else in a data field (as shown in mockups) will potentially interfere with other possible data operations in that region (clicking hyperlinks, clicking the edit button, hover states after reconciliation, etc).

@lozanaross Oh I didn't catch that, they have mocked up dragging behavior on the vertical column lines as well? (I now see the white barbell arrow) Agree, dragging should only be accomplished against a column header and not anything below them.

@lozanaross Oh thank you for the feedback.
I'll make the necessary corrections.

@Lydiaofficial i am not sure there is much more work to do here, and since you have already made a lot of other contributions, you don't have to do more.

Oh. Alright.
Thank you.