Change column width in SharePoint 2010 (java or css or both)

Question

I tried below but it does not adjust the column width. Any other idea?

my column name is Progress (internal name is Progress as well) and it's multi-line type field.

Try the below code in a content/script editor webpart. Change the name of the column. I see the max-width of the column is set to 500px. So if you want to make your column width more than 500px, then you have to change the max-width, otherwise that is not needed. I ran this code on SharePoint online and it worked fine.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type='text/javascript'> 
$(document).ready(function(){
    var columnName = 'Progress';
    var element = $("div[name='" + columnName + "']").parent();
    var width = '600px';
    element.css('max-width', width);
    element.css('width', width) 
}); 
</script>

The script below did not work either.

<style>
    /* new class created */
    .ms-longg
    {
        width:500px
    }
</style>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
        //removed existing class 
        $('input[title="Progress"]').removeClass('ms-long');
        //add New class for that textbox
        $('input[title="Progress"]').addClass('ms-longg');
    });
</script>

Answer 1

The following worked for me in SP 2010.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){
    $("div.ms-vh-div:contains('Progress')").css("width", "350px");});
</script>

Answer 2

If you don't mind changing the width of all multi-line text fields then modify the PlaceHolderBodyAreaClass content of the page to this:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderBodyAreaClass" runat="server">
<style type="text/css">
.ms-bodyareaframe {
    padding: 8px;
    border: none;
}

.ms-long {
  width:602px;
}

.ms-rtelong {
  width:600px;
}
</style>
</asp:Content>

The .ms-rtelong adjusts the width of the rich-text toolbar if needed.