Have you ever been frustrated while working in an MS Excel worksheet because you were so far down the columns that you no longer could see the column titles? Did you find yourself constantly scrolling up to make sure you were still entering data in the right place? Frustrating, time-consuming pain, isn’t it?
Freeze Pane is a very useful aspect of MS Excel and the answer to this particular problem.
Freeze Pane keeps designated rows and/or columns on the screen so that they’re always visible. You can choose to freeze whatever information you need for easy data entry or editing.
Let’s look at your options. Start by clicking the view tab at the top of the spreadsheet.
Click on Freeze Panes at the top.
Choose Freeze Top Row to keep the top row visible while you scroll down.
Choose Freeze First Column to keep the first column visible while you scroll right.
If you want to pick other rows or columns to continually display, select the cell just below the last row and one column to the right of the cells you want to freeze.
Choose Freeze Panes.
Confusing? I know—so let’s see if we can clear it up.
If you want to continually display rows 1 through 3 then you would select a cell in row 4.
If you want to continually display column A then you would select a cell in column B.
When you want a combination you need to select a cell to the right of and below all rows and columns to be frozen.
For example: If I want rows 1 through 3 and columns A and B frozen then I will select cell C4. (C because it’s to the right of column B and 4 because it’s below row 3.)
You should now see solid lines running through your sheet showing where the panes are frozen. You should be able to scroll anywhere in the sheet and still see the selected columns and/or rows.
The selected panes will stay frozen whether you scroll down or to the right.
To reverse the process you need to go to the View menu and choose Unfreeze Panes.
Now the solid lines should be removed and the scrolling should be back to normal!
For those of you who are wondering—no this doesn’t affect the printed version of the worksheet, just what you’re seeing on the screen.