How to Freeze Cells in Excel. When you are using an Excel spreadsheet, you could potentially deal with thousands of cells. In order to keep some rows. Excel 2013 and Excel 2010 When you work with a large Excel worksheet, it's often difficult to remember exactly what kind of data, columns or rows contain once.
The tutorial shows how to freeze cells in Excel to keep them visible while you navigate to another area of the worksheet. Below you will find the detailed steps on how to lock a row or multiple rows, freeze one or more columns, or freeze column and row at once.
When working with large datasets in Excel, you may often want to lock certain rows or columns so that you can view their contents while scrolling to another area of the worksheet. This can be easily done by using the Freeze Panes command and a few other features of Excel.
How to freeze rows in Excel
How to freeze columns in Excel
Other ways to lock columns and rows in Excel
How to freeze rows in Excel
Freezing rows in Excel is a few clicks thing. You just click View tab > Freeze Panes and choose one of the following options, depending on how many rows you wish to lock:
Freeze Top Row - to lock the first row.
Freeze Panes - to lock several rows.
The detailed guidelines follow below.
How to freeze top row in Excel
To lock top row in Excel, go to the View tab, Window group, and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row.
This will lock the very first row in your worksheet so that it remains visible when you navigate through the rest of your worksheet.
You can determine that the top row is frozen by a grey line below it:
How to freeze multiple rows in Excel
In case you want to lock several rows (starting with row 1), carry out these steps:
Select the row (or the first cell in the row) right below the last row you want to freeze.
On the View tab, click Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
For example, to freeze top two rows in Excel, we select cell A3 or the entire row 3, and click Freeze Panes:
As the result, you'll be able to scroll through the sheet content while continuing to view the frozen cells in the first two rows:
Notes:
Microsoft Excel allows freezing only rows at the top of the spreadsheet. It is not possible to lock rows in the middle of the sheet.
Make sure that all the rows to be locked are visible at the moment of freezing. If some of the rows are out of view, such rows will be hidden after freezing. For more information, please see How to avoid frozen hidden rows in Excel.
How to freeze columns in Excel
Freezing columns in Excel is done similarly by using the Freeze Panes commands.
How to lock the first column
To freeze the first column in a sheet, click View tab > Freeze Panes > Freeze First Column.
This will make the leftmost column visible at all times while you scroll to the right.
How to freeze multiple columns in Excel
In case you want to freeze more than one column, this is what you need to do:
Select the column (or the first cell in the column) to the right of the last column you want to lock.
Go to the View tab, and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
For example, to freeze the first two columns, select the whole column C or cell C1, and click Freeze Panes:
This will lock the first two columns in place, as indicated by the thicker and darker border, enabling you to view the cells in frozen columns as you move across the worksheet:
Notes:
You can only freeze columns on the left side of the sheet. Columns in the middle of the worksheet cannot be frozen.
All the columns to be locked should be visible, any columns that are out of view will be hidden after freezing.
How to freeze rows and columns in Excel
Besides locking columns and rows separately, Microsoft Excel lets you freeze both rows and columns at the same time. Here's how:
Select a cell below the last row and to the right of the last column you'd like to freeze.
On the View tab, click Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
Yep, it's that easy :)
For example, to freeze top row and first column in a single step, select cell B2 and click Freeze Panes:
This way, the header row and leftmost column of your table will always be viewable as you scroll down and to the right:
In the same fashion, you can freeze as many rows and columns as you want as long as you start with the top row and leftmost column. For instance, to lock top row and the first 2 columns, you select cell C2; to freeze the first two rows and the first two columns, you select C3, and so on.
How to unlock rows and columns in Excel
To unlock frozen rows and/or columns, go to the View tab, Window group, and click Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes.
Freeze Panes not working
If the Freeze Panes button is disabled (greyed out) in your worksheet, most likely it's because of the following reasons:
You are in cell editing mode, for example entering a formula or editing data in a cell. To exit cell editing mode, press the Enter or Esc key.
Your worksheet is protected. Please remove the workbook protection first, and then freeze rows or columns.
Other ways to lock columns and rows in Excel
Apart from freezing panes, Microsoft Excel provides a few more ways to lock certain areas of a sheet.
Split panes instead of freezing panes
Another way to freeze cells in Excel is to split a worksheet area into several parts. The difference is as follows:
Freezing panes allows you to keep certain rows or/and columns visible when scrolling across the worksheet.
Splitting panes divides the Excel window into two or four areas that can be scrolled separately. When you scroll within one area, the cells in the other area(s) remain fixed.
To split Excel's window, select a cell below the row or to the right of the column where you want the split, and click the Split button on the View tab > Window group. To undo a split, click the Split button again.
Use tables to lock top row in Excel
If you'd like the header row to always stay fixed at the top while you scroll down, convert a range to a fully-functional Excel table:
The fastest way to create a table in Excel is by pressing the Ctl + T shortcut. For more information, please see How to make a table in Excel.
Print header rows on every page
In case you'd like to repeat top row or rows on every printed page, switch to the Page Layout tab, Page Setup group, click the Print Titles button, go to the Sheet tab, and select Rows to repeat at top. The detailed instructions can be found here: Print row and column headers on every page.
That's how you can lock a row in Excel, freeze a column, or freeze both rows and columns at a time. I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week!
You may also be interested in:
It's sometimes difficult to read and understand large spreadsheets. When you scroll too far right or too far down, you lose the headings that are located at the top and on the left side of the worksheet. Without the headings, it's hard to keep track of which column or row of data you're looking at.
Instructions in this article apply to Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; Excel for Mac, Excel 365, and Excel Online.
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Freeze Rows or Columns in Excel With Freeze Panes
If you want to always keep the first column or the top row in view in a spreadsheet, use the Freeze Panes feature in Microsoft Excel. This allows you to keep certain areas or panes of the spreadsheet visible at all times when scrolling to the right or down.
When headings or rows are visible on the screen, it's easier to keep track of data while you enter values in other parts of the spreadsheet.
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Freeze Panes Using the Active Cell
When you use Freeze Panes in Excel, all the rows above the active cell and all the columns to the left of it become frozen in place.
As you scroll across the spreadsheet, those cells won't move.
To enable this feature, select the cell to the right of the columns and just below the rows that you want to freeze in place.
For example, to keep row 1, row 2, and column A on the screen when you scroll:
Select cell B3.
Select View.
Select Freeze Panes to display a drop-down list.
Select Freeze Panes.
This freezes all rows and columns to the top and left of the selected cell. The status of frozen cells or columns is displayed by a darker line beneath the frozen rows and to the right of frozen columns.
To freeze panes in Microsoft Excel 2010, select View > Arrange All > Freeze Panes.
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Unfreeze Panes in Excel
When you freeze rows or columns in Excel and then save the file, the status of frozen panes is also saved. This means that the next time you open the sheet, those frozen rows and columns remain in place.
If you don't want those rows or columns to stay static anymore, unfreeze all rows and columns with the Unfreeze Panes command.
To unlock the rows and columns so that you can scroll the entire spreadsheet:
Select View.
Select Freeze Panes to open a drop-down list.
Select Unfreeze Panes.
Your spreadsheet returns to normal. All rows and columns will scroll as you scroll the sheet up and down, or left and right.
When multiple people work on the same spreadsheet, freezing panes can make a spreadsheet difficult for other people to follow. Use Unfreeze Panes to quickly set the spreadsheet back to normal.
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Freeze the Top Row in Excel
If you want to keep the top row visible in Excel, use the Freeze Top Row command. This command freezes only the top row of your spreadsheet, regardless of which cell you've selected. This is commonly used when the top row contains header information for all of the data in the spreadsheet.
Select View.
Select Freeze Panes to display a drop-down list.
Select Freeze Top Row.
This freezes the top row so that you can scroll the sheet down as far as you like, but still see the top row.
There is no quick keyboard shortcut to freeze the top row in Excel, but you can press a few keys in sequence to navigate to the Freeze Top Pane in the menu using your keyboard. To do this, press Alt+W, press F, and press R.
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Freeze the Left Column in Excel
You can quickly freeze the left column of a spreadsheet using the Freeze First Column command. This command freezes the left column of your spreadsheet, regardless of which cell you've selected. This feature is useful when the left column contains information about all of the numbers to the right of it in the sheet.
Select View.
Select Freeze Panes to open a drop-down list.
Select Freeze First Column.
This immediately freezes the left column so that you can scroll the sheet to the right as far as you like, but still see the left column.
If you want to navigate to Freeze First Column using your keyboard, press Alt+W, press F, and press C.
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Add Freeze Panes to the Quick Access Toolbar
If you use the Freeze Panes feature a lot in Excel, you can add all the freeze commands to the Quick Access Toolbar.
The Quick Access Toolbar is located above the ribbon, at the very top of the Excel window. It lets you quickly access commands that you use most often.
Select File.
Select Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Quick Access Toolbar.
In the Choose commands from list, select Freeze Panes.
Select Add to add Freeze Panes to the list on the right.
Select OK.
An icon for Freeze Panes is added to the Quick Access Toolbar. When you select this icon, you'll see the three Freeze Panes commands described in this article.