Hi Sam,
Is your BEx GUI based on 7.3? Because the 7.0 Queries standard layout will be in collapsed status(Columns, Rows Free Chars) by default. But I see all are not expanded in your screen shot.
You can customize the requirement by creating Web templates(with multiple web items) with Collapsed/not expanded. You cannot interfere in standard default layouts(comes when you execute Queries from Query Designer/RSRT through browsers)
Regards,
Suman