Scrolling down a long list often means losing sight of the column headings, leaving you guessing what each figure actually means. By the end of this page you will know how to freeze the top row so your headings stay put no matter how far you scroll.
Once a list stretches beyond one screenful, scrolling down pushes your headings up and off the top of the window, leaving a screen of numbers with no labels at all. Freeze Panes solves exactly this problem by locking chosen rows, or columns, in place so they stay visible while the rest of the sheet scrolls freely underneath them.
- Freeze Panes lives under View
- Click, then choose Freeze Top Row
To freeze just the top row, go to the View tab and click Freeze Panes, then choose Freeze Top Row from the menu. A thin line appears below row 1, showing where the frozen area ends. Now, however far down you scroll, row 1 stays exactly where it is on screen, while everything below the line scrolls as normal. If you want more than one row frozen, or you also want a column of labels down the left frozen, click the cell just below and just to the right of everything you want frozen, then choose the plain Freeze Panes option instead of Freeze Top Row.
Try it yourself
Type headings across row 1, and fill rows 2 to 40 with sample data underneath them.
You need a list longer than one screen to actually see freezing make a difference.
Go to the View tab, click Freeze Panes, and choose Freeze Top Row.
This locks row 1 in place so your headings will remain visible while you scroll.
Scroll down using the mouse wheel or the scroll bar until row 1 would normally have disappeared.
This proves the heading row is genuinely staying on screen, rather than just appearing to at first.
Click cell B2, go to View, click Freeze Panes, and choose the plain Freeze Panes option this time.
This freezes both row 1 above B2 and column A to its left, which is useful when you also have a column of labels running down the sheet.
Go to View, click Freeze Panes again, and choose Unfreeze Panes.
This removes all freezing and returns the sheet to scrolling normally in every direction.
Words people use
Freeze Panes costs nothing to set up and makes any long list dramatically easier to read, since you never lose track of what a column actually represents. It is worth switching on as soon as a sheet grows past a single screen.
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can freeze the top row so headings stay visible while scrolling.
- I can freeze both a row and a column at the same time.
- I can unfreeze panes to return to normal scrolling.
- I know Freeze Panes is found on the View tab.