One pleasant alternative is to show only part of the text in your column, plus a button or graphic of some sort that indicates they can see more by either hovering over the cell or clicking on something.
For example:
Name | Id | Cover Letter
----- ------ ----------------------------------------------------
Rex | 1000 | I am seeking opportunities in t... (click for more)
You can code this by hand, but there are a lot of tools out there that make this easy, particularly if you're comfortable with JQuery. I found the following just quickly browsing the JQuery windows and overlays plugins:
- JQuery Callout Plugin, which
looks very nice.
- JHelperTip, "The multi-use
tooltip for JQuery."
- Coda Bubble for a slick, cute
style.
