Introduction
We’ve all been working with a data set in Excel and found ourselves having to scroll back and forth to compare specific information in one row or column with other data that feels miles away. Thankfully, Excel makes it easy to freeze multiple rows and columns so you can lock some rows or columns in place while moving to different parts of the spreadsheet in the cells that aren’t frozen. Examples of all instructions in the steps can be seen in the YouTube video below.
Steps to Freeze Rows or Columns in Excel
- Click to highlight either the row or column that comes after the row or column that you want to freeze. It’s important to remember that if you freeze a row in Excel, everything above that row will be frozen, and if you freeze a column everything to the left of that column will be frozen. For example, in this example I want to freeze everything up to row six that contains John Madden Football, so I’ll click to highlight row seven.
- Click “View” in the menu across the top of the screen, and then click “Freeze Panes” to open a menu.
- Click “Freeze Panes.” You’ll see a thin line that appears beneath the row directly above the row you highlighted, or to the left of the column you highlighted.
Now when you navigate up and down the Excel spreadsheet, all of the cells above or to the left of the thin line will remain in place. Again, it’s important to remember that if you freeze a row, everything above that row will be frozen, and if you freeze a column in Excel everything to the left of that column will be frozen.
You can unfreeze your rows or columns in Excel at any time by clicking “View” in the menu bar along the top of the screen, and then clicking “Freeze Panes” and then “Unfreeze Panes.” Your rows or columns will be unfrozen automatically.
