When using the adapters you have to make these sorts of changes within your style sheets. The adapters assume that you'll have linked (either directly or automatically by using a theme) to a style sheet that sets up CSS rules for the HTML that the adapter is know to spit out.
In other words, the adapters expect you to have a style sheet like this one, http://www.asp.net/CSSAdapters/srcviewer.aspx?inspect=%2fCSSAdapters%2fApp_Themes%2fBasic%2fGridViewExample.css¬ree=true.
Look at line 42. There's a rule that styles all the cells in the table's body. It looks like it would be the right place to add things like
wrap: false;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
However, I've not actually tried this so I'll be interested to hear if it works for you.
It also looks like you'll want to modify a rule for the whole table, like the rule on line 21. To it you might add
table-layout: fixed;
Hope this helps. Let me know if you find that all this is smoke&mirrors in which case I'll try to come up with a different strategy for you. :)
Russ Helfand
Groovybits.com