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How to change width on the left side list showing Tables and other parts.

Anonymous
2025-05-17T13:35:35+00:00

My MS Access has made my left column containing names on tables etc so narrow I cannot read the names of them. How to change this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For home | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-19T15:43:24+00:00

    Suggestion from Daniel Pineault

    One of the best things I ever did was change the default width of scrollbars in Windows!

    1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
    2. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
    3. Navigate to:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

    1. In the right pane, find the entries named ScrollWidth and ScrollHeight.
      • The default value is usually -255. To make the scrollbars wider, enter a greater negative value up to a limit of -1500.
      • Double-click each entry and enter the same value for both.
    2. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

    Sign out and sign back in (or restart your computer) for the changes to take effect.

    But then nothing is visible only a white/or black broad stripe where I earlier saw the beginning of the table names. See below

    ![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/410e273e-258c-4b84-86a8-3b47e0081581?platform=QnA

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  2. Duane Hookom 26,280 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-05-19T16:36:38+00:00

    You can click and drag the blue bar to create a floating dialog box to type in commands.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-19T15:55:09+00:00

    Karl you say:

    Only the first potential remedy at Colin's page is about programming. No 2 and 3 are keyboard and mouse actions you can try.

    An easier version of No 1:

    1. press Ctrl+G
    2. copy this line into the Immediate window of the VBA editor where the cursor is in now:
      DoCmd.NavigateTo "acNavigationCategoryObjectType": DoCmd.Maximize
      and press Enter
    3. close the VBA editor

    Result is that Immediate window show grey area - I am not able to past anything. See below

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-19T16:08:58+00:00

    Now I have tested again the solution Daniel suggest.

    See the result:

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-19T17:41:34+00:00

    My suggestion doesn't resolve your navigation pane width issue, and sadly the exposed Access property does nothing. The Reg hack simply makes scrollbars much easier to see and grab and makes Windows/Applications more user-friendly.

    Whenever I have weird issues with Office, I turn to running an Office Repair

    , you could always try that.

    You could also try (seen it mentioned before) :

    1. Right-click the Navigation Pane title bar.
    2. Select Search Bar to show or hide it.
    3. After toggling the Search Bar, the double arrow for resizing should reappear on the right margin of the pane, allowing you to drag and resize the pane to your desired width
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