in enormous dialog boxes such as Dataset Explorer, DataGroup Catalog Editor, it's hard to tell if there's any intelligence in optimising column widths, so that the dialog is no wider than it needs to be, or even so it can be seen in one without scrolling. It can be done in Excel. It's a drag when columns appear dumbly even-width, with acres of white space.
Often the data strings are short and it's just the verbose column heading string that makes the column so wide. We could choose Preference whether to therefore end-truncate the column headings, or to Word-wrap and/or Hyphenate them to 2 rows if necessary.
Conversely, some data strings are extra-long, while the column heading string is short. Similarly, we could choose Preference whether to therefore end-truncate the occasional extra-long data string, or to Word-wrap and/or Hyphenate them to 2 (or more) rows if necessary.
Columns empty of data could be made just one character wide.
Same applies to the left (tree) pane, where folders' full filepaths are very long, and it's the end bit of it that's of interest, but is lost if the pane is kept narrow. Shouldn't have to rely on the tooltip.
It's v useful to see at a glance, that most of the folders look almost the same because they share the same filepath, while some look different, in other filepath(s). That visual pattern is upset when one or two folders show with their middle bits truncated out. Typically, the verbose routine \ProgramData\AECOsimBuildingDesigner\Ss4\ bit is reproduced in full and the useful middle-to-end bit truncated out. Instead, by default it should be the beginning-to-middle bit that is truncated out.
It's a poor way to try to shorten the filepath, compared with pane-width intelligence, governed by Preference whether to end-truncate, or to Word-wrap and/or Hyphenate them to 2 (or more) rows if necessary.
In general, it's more useful that dialog boxes are compaced widthwise so that a row's whole length is visible at a glance without scrolling across - even if more scrolling down becomes necessary because the occasional row consists of 2 lines instead of always 1.
At least give us that Preference.