Easily Freeze Panes to Lock Titles in Microsoft Excel
by Avantix Learning Team | Updated:Updated July 31, 2020
Applies to: Microsoft® Excel® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (Windows)
As many Excel worksheets can become quite large, it can be useful to freeze row and column headings or freeze panes so titles are locked in place when you scroll through your worksheet. In Excel, you can freeze both row headings and column headings or just one. This does not affect the cells that will print. The column headings or titles can be one row or multiple rows at the top of the worksheet. The row headings (which appear on the left) can be one or more columns on the left of the data.
Freezing column and/or row headings
To freeze column and/or row headings:
- Scroll down until the top row or rows that you want to freeze are displayed at the top of the worksheet.
- Scroll to the right until the left column or columns that you want to freeze are displayed on the left of the worksheet.
- Click below the row you want to freeze and to the right of the column you want to freeze. For example, if you want to freeze row 6 and column A, click in B7. If you want to freeze row 2 but do not want to freeze any columns, click in A3.
- Click the View tab in the Ribbon and then click Freeze Panes.
- In the drop-down menu, select Freeze Panes. The column and row headings will now be locked into place.
Below is the Freeze Panes drop-down menu:
In the sample below, we wanted to freeze row 1 and no columns, so we clicked in A2 and then chose Freeze Panes:
Unfreezing column and/or row headings
To unfreeze column and/or row headings:
- Click anywhere in the worksheet.
- Click the View tab in the Ribbon and then click Freeze Panes.
- In the drop-down menu, select Unfreeze Panes.
Freezing column headings by creating a table
If you change a data set or list into a table, Excel will automatically freeze the header row (column headings) so that when you scroll down, the header row will always be locked in place at the top of the table.
To create a table:
- Click in the data set or list.
- Click the Insert tab in the Ribbon and then click Table in the Tables group
- If the selected range contains data that you want to display as table headers, select the My table has headers check box. Table headers display default names if you do not select the My table has headers check box. Ideally, your table should always have headers.
- Click OK.
Below is the Create Table dialog box:
When you scroll down in the table, the column headings should be locked at the top of the table automatically.
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Microsoft Excel: Data Analysis with Functions, Dashboards and What-If Analysis Tools
Microsoft Excel: Introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
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