Freezing Panes

If you have a large table of data in Excel, it can be useful to freeze rows or columns. This way you can keep rows or columns visible while scrolling through the rest of the worksheet.To keep an area of a worksheet visible while you scroll to another area of the worksheet, you can lock specific rows or columns in one area by freezing or splitting panes.

When you freeze panes, you keep specific rows or columns visible when you scroll in the worksheet. For example, you might want to keep row and column labels visible as you scroll.

Freeze Top Row

To freeze the top row, execute the following steps.

1. On the View tab, click Freeze Panes, Freeze Top Row.

2. Scroll down to the rest of the worksheet.

Result. Excel automatically adds a black horizontal line to indicate that the top row is frozen.

Note: to keep the first column visible while scrolling through the right of the worksheet, click Freeze First Column.

Unfreeze Panes

To unlock all rows and columns, execute the following steps.

1. On the View tab, click Freeze Panes, Unfreeze Panes.

Freeze Panes

To freeze panes, execute the following steps.

1. Select row 3.

2. On the View tab, click Freeze Panes, Freeze Panes.

3. Scroll down to the rest of the worksheet.

Result. All rows above row 3 are frozen.

Note: to keep columns visible while scrolling to the right of the worksheet, select a column and click Freeze panes.

4. Select cell C3 (unfreeze panes first).

5. On the View tab, click Freeze Panes, Freeze Panes.

Result. The region above row 3 and to the left of column C is frozen.