Working on Microsoft Excel is a daily activity that you undertake for your business. From minor reports to major sales data, for anything and everything you would need the assistance of MS Excel. Learn steps to Freeze Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel.
In requisite of such crucial needs for your business, you need to know the complete knowledge about formatting options on MS Excel.
One of such important actions for formatting on MS Excel is freezing rows. This article will take you through a defining guide on how to Freeze Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel.
Speaking of how to freeze rows in Excel, there are majorly four variants that fall under it:
- Freezing the Top Row/First Column.
- Freezing Multiple Rows.
- Freezing Several Columns.
- Freezing Horizontal and Vertical Headings at the Same Time.
Steps to Freeze Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel
Thus, without further ado, let’s get each of the variants for freezing rows and columns in MS Excel:
1. Freezing The Top Row/First Column
Step 1: Open the respective MS Excel File.
Step 2: Go to the View Tab.
Step 3: Tap on the Windows Group.
Step 4: Select Freeze Panes to the drop-down arrow.
Step 5: To freeze the top row, choose Freeze Top Row. To freeze the top column, choose Freeze Top Column. A thin line would appear suggesting the area from where the frozen pane is starting.
2. Freezing Multiple Rows
Step 1: Choose the row which you find immediately beneath the last row which you wish to freeze.
Step 2: Go to the View Tab.
Step 3: Tap on the Windows Group.
Step 4: Tap on Freeze Panes drop-down.
Step 5: Choose Select Freeze Panes. A thin line would appear suggesting the area from where the frozen pane is starting.
3. Freezing Several Columns
Step 1: Choose the column which you find immediately beneath the last column which you wish to freeze.
Step 2: Go to the View Tab.
Step 3: Tap on the Windows Group.
Step 4: Tap on Freeze Panes drop-down.
Step 5: Choose Select Freeze Panes. A thin line would appear suggesting the area from where the frozen pane is starting.
4. Freezing Horizontal and Vertical Headings at The Same Time
Step 1: Choose the cell from the upper-left corner of the respective range that you wish to keep as scroll able.
Step 2: Go to the View Tab.
Step 3: Tap on the Windows Group.
Step 4: Tap on Freeze Panes drop-down.
Step 5: Choose Select Freeze Panes. A thin line would appear suggesting the area from where the frozen pane is starting.
If you do not wish to freeze rows in MS Excel, a simple alternative to that is split panes. Using split panes would lock the few areas of the sheet which you want to keep as frozen.
How to Use Split Panes in Microsoft Excel?
When using split panes, you don’t need to separately use freezing rows/columns functionality. It would have the same formatting appeal.
What happens in split panes is that it would divide the Excel window into 2 or 4 areas which you would be able to scroll separately. While you are scrolling within one particular area, the respective cells in the other area would remain to be fixed.
For using the split panes in MS Excel, here’s what needs to be done for the action execution:
Step 1: Open the respective MS Excel File.
Step 2: Choose a cell either on the right of the column or below the row to which you wish to split.
Step 3: Go to the View Tab.
Step 4: Tap on the Windows Group.
Step 5: Select the Split Button.
If you wish to undo the split panes, re-click on Split
Therefore, now hopefully, you would have a broader clarity on how to freeze rows in Excel. Now you won’t be stuck while you need to work with freezing rows or columns in Excel.
Excel is a crucial aspect of everyday business. It is imperative to get it right so that business processes and functions run smoothly. If you fail to freeze a row in excel, it is quite possible that your business process may take a lot of time than usual, hindering productivity significantly.
If you wish to avail such easy tutorials about working on Excel, watch out for this space for more updates.
How can I Restore it to its Original Working Version, once I have Frozen Rows or Columns in MS Excel?
Once you have frozen rows or columns in MS Excel, the following steps would help you to restore to its original working version:
Go to the View Tab Tap on the Windows Group Select Freeze Panes Choose Unfreeze Panes
The Freeze Panes on my Excel are seen to be Greyed out or Disabled. What should I do?
If the freeze panes on your Excel are seen to be greyed out or disabled, there might be two possibilities for the same:
The current mode in which you are must be the cell editing mode. For example, either while editing data in a respective cell or entering a formula, this might happen.
For exiting the cell editing mode, tap the Esc key or the Enter button.
Another reason why does freeze panes on your Excel are seen to be greyed out or disabled, is because the worksheet might be protected.
Try disabling the workbook protection and then try once again in freezing rows or columns.
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