Navigate Data: Mastering Freeze Panes in Spreadsheets

Freeze panes. In this section, we're going to discuss how you can lock rows and columns to be able to efficiently view your data as you scroll through the spreadsheet. And you can scroll either up or down or left or right.

This enables a portion of the screen to remain frozen or visible at all times. So, let's start by going over to the View tab, because what you will be doing is changing the view of your spreadsheet. Now, currently, this sheet doesn't have any rows or columns frozen.

If I scroll down, I will now no longer see the Freeze Panes header. I might like to see that header at the top of the worksheet when I scroll down. I would not like it to disappear and move, because maybe I like to see the title at the top.

So, on the View tab, I'll go over to Freeze Panes. And there's a very easy option to choose: Freeze Top Row.

And this will do what it says. It will freeze the top row. And the top row that's currently visible is Row 1.

So, with one click, now when I scroll down, Freeze Panes always stays at the top. Now, I'm going to go back and unfreeze Panes so I can choose a different option. I may want to freeze Column A. So there's also an easy-to-select preset option.

It's called Freeze First Column. This will keep the first column visible while scrolling through the rest of the worksheet. With one click, there's a little dividing line between A and B. This is useful in case I want to compare information in Column A with information in Column C. I may have ID numbers in Column A. And I want to see what the value is in Column C. Column C wasn't currently visible.

---

But as I'm moving across, I'm slowly bringing Column A to Column C, literally A to C. And now, I can compare the two columns. Now, I'm going to go back and unfreeze Panes and remove that. Everything goes back to the way it was.

Now, someone might say, well, that's pretty convenient if you want to freeze the top row or the first column. What if I want to freeze Row 11? That's where my headers are. So, how do I freeze Row 11? It's not the top row.

If you want to use Freeze Panes, my advice is to select Row 12. You need to select the row underneath the row that you want to freeze.

Then, you'll go and simply choose Freeze Panes. When you do that and scroll down, Row 11 is frozen. Now, you'll always be able to see your headers, whether you're at the bottom or the top of your data.

Now, I would like to do something else. Someone says, 'I have information in A, B, C, and D that I would like to remain the same. And I would like to scroll and take a look at all the other columns.'

If you want to freeze A through D, then the column you're going to select is going to be Column E. So, let me unfreeze Panes first. I'm going to click on Column E. Then, I'll go and choose Freeze Panes from the Freeze Panes dropdown. Now, if I move over to the right, A through D is frozen.

---

And I'm able to navigate to all the additional columns over to the right while keeping the first four frozen. Someone says, 'I think you've solved all the situations where I might want to freeze panes. There's just one situation I think you haven't accounted for.'

What if I want to freeze both Columns A through D and Row 11? I want to be able to scroll up and have Row 11 stay the same, and move to the right and have Columns A through D stay the same. For this, you'll select the cell that is both underneath Row 11 and to the right of Column D. That cell is E12. Then, you'll go to Freeze Panes.

You'll select Freeze Panes. And now, you'll see these crosshairs. If I scroll down, Row 11 is frozen.

If I go to the right, Columns A through D are locked. This gives you the best of both worlds. Finally, I go and unfreeze Panes, and everything is back to normal.

So, that's how you can freeze Panes within your document.