Often times when scrolling through data in Excel, you want to keep the top few rows visible so you can easily see the column headers without scrolling back up to the top every 5 seconds. Learning to freeze rows and columns will make your life much easier and increase your spreadsheet's usability.
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Freezing Top Rows
Freezing the top one, two, or three rows in Excel is extremely useful whenever you have header information that you want to remain locked as you scroll, allowing you to keep track of which column you're currently looking at.
How to Freeze the Top Row
In order to freeze the top row, all you have to do is navigate to the View ribbon tab, then under the "Freeze Panes" option, select "Freeze Top Row".
Freezing rows means that no matter where you scroll or navigate to on that worksheet, the frozen rows will always be visible at the top of your worksheet. demonstrated by the image at the top of this page.
How to Freeze the Top 3 Rows
Freezing the top 3 rows is just as simple as freezing the top row.
To freeze the top 3 rows, you'll need to use the "Freeze Panes" option and select the first cell in the fourth row.
The fourth row must be selected, as "Freeze Panes" will freeze any cells to the left and above the selected cell. By selecting the fourth row, the top 3 rows will stay frozen.
How to Freeze Any Number of Top Rows
Because the "Freeze Panes" option will freeze any rows above the currently selected cell, whether you want to freeze the top row, top 2 rows, or top 30 rows, simply select the first cell below the cells you wish to freeze and use the freeze panes option.
For example, if you want to freeze the first 5 rows, select the left most cell in row 6, and then freeze. To freeze the first 10 rows, select row 11, and so on.
If you freeze the entire worksheet, it can look like Excel has crashed or frozen, but it could just be that you froze too many rows/columns by accident. It's always worth checking this option if something isn't working as you would expect.
Freezing Columns
Freezing columns in Excel is extremely useful whenever viewing large table or PivotTable that has important information on the first column that you want to remain locked and visible as you scroll sideways.
How to Freeze the First Column
In order to freeze the first column, all you have to do is navigate to the View ribbon tab, then under the "Freeze Panes", select "Freeze First Column".
Freezing columns means that no matter where you scroll or navigate to on that sheet, the frozen columns will always be visible at the left of your worksheet.
How to Freeze Any Number of Columns
Because the "Freeze Panes" option will freeze any columns to the left of the currently selected cell, whether you want to freeze the first column, first two columns, or first 30 columns, simply select the uppermost cell to the right of the columns you wish to freeze and use the freeze panes option.
For example, if you want to freeze the first 2 columns, select cell C1, and then freeze panes. To freeze the first 5 columns, select row F1, and so on.
Freezing Rows and Columns
Being able to freeze the top row and first column at the same time lets you navigate a large data set much easier as you can visually track which column you are viewing, and to which row each line belongs to.
How to Freeze Rows and Columns at the Same Time
To freeze multiple rows and columns at the same time, we also use the "Freeze Panes" option, like in the previous examples.
For this example, let's say that we want to freeze the dark green header row, and also keep the "Order #" column visible as we scroll sideways through the data.
We would need to select cell B4. The reason for this is that the freeze panes option will freeze all rows above the selected cell, and all columns to the right of the selected cell.
By selecting B4, we are freezing column A, and all rows above 4, which are the top 3.
With B4 selected, anything above the horizontal red line will be frozen, and anything to the left of the vertical red line will be frozen.
How to Unfreeze Frozen Rows and Columns
In order to unfreeze any frozen rows, navigate to the View ribbon tab, then under window options, click "Freeze Panes" and select the "Unfreeze Panes" option.
This will unfreeze all rows and columns and reset your worksheet back to its original view settings, giving you the freedom to scroll once again.
The following shortcut can be used to freeze and unfreeze your worksheet:
Alt + W + F + F Freeze and Unfreeze Rows and Columns