Splitting panes divides the Excel window into two or four areas that can be scrolled separately. The difference is as follows:įreezing panes allows you to keep certain rows or/and columns visible when scrolling across the worksheet. Split panes instead of freezing panesĪnother way to freeze cells in Excel is to split a worksheet area into several parts. Other ways to lock columns and rows in ExcelĪpart from freezing panes, Microsoft Excel provides a few more ways to lock certain areas of a sheet. Please remove the workbook protection first, and then freeze rows or columns. To exit cell editing mode, press the Enter or Esc key. You are in cell editing mode, for example entering a formula or editing data in a cell.If the Freeze Panes button is disabled (greyed out) in your worksheet, most likely it's because of the following reasons: To unlock frozen rows and/or columns, go to the View tab, Window group, and click Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. For instance, to lock top row and the first 2 columns, you select cell C2 to freeze the first two rows and the first two columns, you select C3, and so on. In the same fashion, you can freeze as many rows and columns as you want as long as you start with the top row and leftmost column. This way, the header row and leftmost column of your table will always be viewable as you scroll down and to the right: Select a cell below the last row and to the right of the last column you'd like to freeze.įor example, to freeze top row and first column in a single step, select cell B2 and click Freeze Panes:.
For more information, please see How to avoid frozen hidden rows in Excel.įreezing columns in Excel is done similarly by using the Freeze Panes commands. If some of the rows are out of view, such rows will be hidden after freezing. Make sure that all the rows to be locked are visible at the moment of freezing.It is not possible to lock rows in the middle of the sheet. Microsoft Excel allows freezing only rows at the top of the spreadsheet.On the View tab, click Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.įor example, to freeze top two rows in Excel, we select cell A3 or the entire row 3, and click Freeze Panes:Īs the result, you'll be able to scroll through the sheet content while continuing to view the frozen cells in the first two rows:.Select the row (or the first cell in the row) right below the last row you want to freeze.In case you want to lock several rows (starting with row 1), carry out these steps: You can determine that the top row is frozen by a grey line below it: This will lock the very first row in your worksheet so that it remains visible when you navigate through the rest of your worksheet. To lock top row in Excel, go to the View tab, Window group, and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row. Freeze Top Row - to lock the first row.You just click View tab > Freeze Panes and choose one of the following options, depending on how many rows you wish to lock: Other ways to lock columns and rows in Excelįreezing rows in Excel is a few clicks thing.
This can be easily done by using the Freeze Panes command and a few other features of Excel. When working with large datasets in Excel, you may often want to lock certain rows or columns so that you can view their contents while scrolling to another area of the worksheet. Below you will find the detailed steps on how to lock a row or multiple rows, freeze one or more columns, or freeze column and row at once. The tutorial shows how to freeze cells in Excel to keep them visible while you navigate to another area of the worksheet.