How to freeze rows in excel

Ever have a report that is too big to fit in one screen but when you scroll you loose the context? Something like this..

Use FREEZE PANES option in Excel to “Freeze” top rows / columns

We can use the excellent “Freeze panes” option in Excel to make the top few rows (and columns) sticky. This will make your reports so much better. Here is the process to “freeze top rows”.

1. Select the row immediately under the rows you want to freeze (For example, if you want to freeze rows 1:4, select row 5).
2. You can click on the row number to select the entire row.
3. Go to View Ribbon and click on “Freeze Panes” and select the first option (which is also “Freeze panes”)
4. That is it. Your top rows are now frozen.

See this illustration to understand the process.

Demo of Before & After Freeze Panes

Here is a quick demo the freeze panes in action for a busy sales report.

How to freeze second row in Excel?

To freeze second row (or any number of rows), just select the row immediately under the data. For example, to freeze second row, you select row #3.

Then go to View ribbon and click on Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.

Your first two rows are now frozen or made sticky.

How to Freeze the first few columns?

You can use the same technique to freeze first few columns so you can scroll horizontally and still have visibility about the data. For example, something like this:

To freeze first few columns in your spreadsheet, follow these steps:

1. Select the first column after the columns you want to freeze (for example if you want to freeze column A, then select B)
2. Go to View Ribbon, select Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
3. That is it. Your first few columns are now sticky.

How to freeze both rows & columns?

You can also use the “freeze panes” option of Excel to freeze or sticky both rows & columns. This is incredibly helpful when dealing with big spreadsheets or reports. For example, this is how the freeze would look like:

1. To freeze both rows & columns, select the first cell under the freeze area. See this illustration to understand what I mean.

2. After you selected the cell, go to View ribbon > Click on “Freeze panes” to freeze both rows & columns above & to the left of the selected cell.
3. That is it. Now your freeze (sticky area) is set. You can scroll down or right and the frozen cells always stay visible.

How to “UNFREEZE” and go back to normal scrolling behavior

To Unfreeze or remove the freeze effect on your spreadsheet, Just go to View Ribbon and click on the Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes any time. You don’t have to select any cell or column or row for this. It will remove any freeze effect your have set.

Keyboard Shortcuts to Freeze and unfreeze

You can also use the keyboard shortcuts to quickly set or remove freeze effect on your worksheet.

• To freeze top rows: Go the the first cell under the area you want to freeze. Press Shift + Space to select entire row. Now Press the keyboard sequence ALT W F F to freeze the top rows.
• To freeze left few columns: Go to the first cell right of the columns you want to freeze. Press CTRL + Space to select the entire column. Press the keyboard sequence ALT W F F to freeze the left columns.
• To freeze both rows & columns: Select the first cell under & right of the area you want to freeze (for example, if you want to free rows 1:3, columns A:C, select D4). Press the keyboard sequence ALT W F F to freeze (sticky) the cells on top & left.
• To unfreeze: Press the keyboard sequence ALT W F F.

Freeze vs. Split in Excel

Excel also offers a helpful feature called “Split”. With this, we can split the spreadsheet into two individually scrollable areas. You can use this if you want to be able to see two halves of a big workbook and scroll separately.

To split the worksheet at a specific row (or column), select the entire row (or column) and then go to View ribbon and click on “Split” (shortcut sequence: ALT W S)

Here is a quickly illustration of Freeze vs. Split.

When to use Split?

If you want to be able to “scroll” individually in both areas of the screen, then split is what you need. On the other hand, if you just want to scroll on the sheet, but always have the “top few rows” visible, then freeze is the option for you.

Other options to consider

Excel also offers many other ways to work with your data when you have too much of it to see clearly. Here are few of my favorite options:

• Excel tables: These are perfect if you just want to see the heading row. Once you format your data as a table (CTRL T), the top row is always visible, even when you scroll. Learn more about Excel tables here.
• Focus Cell: This new feature allows to highlight the entire row & column of selected cell and follows your selection around the workbook. Very helpful to understand which data you are looking at any point of time. Find it in the view ribbon > focus cell (ALT W E). Here is a quick demo of focus cell in action.

• New Window: You can also use the “new window” option of the view ribbon to open another Excel window with the same file. This is helpful if you want to see sheet1 of the file in one monitor and sheet 2 of the file in another monitor. To open the new window, press ALT W N (or go to View ribbon and click on the New Window button). Any updates or changes you make in one window are automatically reflected in the other window.

In conclusion – Freeze panes is an excellent productivity tool

I think all spreadsheet power users need to know and use “freeze panes” to their advantage. It is an excellent tool to improve UX of your worksheets and stay on top of the data.