How to Freeze Cells in Excel? (with Examples)

Freezing cells in Excel means that when we move down to the data or move up the cells, it freezes the cells displayed on the window. To freeze cells in Excel, we must select those cells we want to freeze. Then, in the “View” tab in the windows section, click on “Freeze Panes” and again click on “Freeze Panes” from the drop-down list. As a result, this will freeze the selected cells. First, let us understand how to freeze rows and columns in Excel by a simple example.

Example #1

The date is provided in the columns instead of the rows in this example.

  • Step 1: We need to select the columns, which we need to freeze Excel cells by clicking on the alphabet of the column.

  • Step 2: After selecting the columns, we need to click on the “View” tab on the ribbon. Then, we need to choose the “Freeze Panes” command on the “View” tab.

  • Step 3: The selected columns get frozen in their position, and a grey line denotes it. We can scroll the entire worksheet and continue viewing the frozen columns. As we can see in the snapshot below, the columns beside the grey line are frozen and do not move after we scroll the worksheet.

For unfreezing the columns, we must use the same process as we did in the case of rows by using the “Unfreeze Panes” command from the “View” tab. In addition, there are two other commands in the “Freeze Panes” options: “Freeze Top Row” and “Freeze First Column.”

These commands are used only for freezing the top row and the first column, respectively. For example, the “Freeze Top Row” command freezes the row number “1,” and the “Freeze First Column” command freezes the column number A cell. It is to be noted that we can also freeze rows and columns together. In addition, It is not necessary to lock only the row or the column at a single instance.

Example #2

Let us take an example of the same.

  • Step 1: The sheet below shows the timesheet of a company. The columns contain the headers as “Day,” “Date,” “Regular Hours,” “Overtime Hours,” “Sick,” “Vacation,” and “Total.”

  • Step 2: We need to see columns “B” and row 7 throughout the worksheet. We have to select the cell above, besides which we need to freeze the columns and rows cells, respectively. In our example, we have to choose the cell number H4.

  • Step 3: After selecting the cell, we need to click on the “View” tab on the ribbon and select the “Freeze Panes” command on the “View” tab.

  • Step 4: As we can see from the snapshot below, two grey lines denote the locking of cells.

Use of Rows & Column Freezing in Excel Cell

If we use the “Freeze Panes” command to freeze the columns and rows of Excel cells, they will remain displayed on the screen regardless of the magnification settings that we select or how we scroll through the cells. Let us take a practical example of the weekly attendance report of a class.

  • Step 1: Now, if we take a look at the snapshot below, the rows and columns display various pieces of information such as “Student name,” “Name of the days,” “Room,” etc. The topmost column shows the “logo to be placed here” and the “Weekly Attendance Report.”

In this case, it becomes necessary to freeze certain Excel columns and rows of cells to understand the attendance of the reports. Otherwise, the report becomes vague and difficult to understand.

  • Step 2: We must select the cell at the F4 location as we need to freeze down the rows up to the subject code P1, T1, U1, E1, and columns up to the “Student Name.”

  • Step 3:  Once we select the cell, we must use the “Freeze Panes” command, freezing the cells at the position indicating a grey line.

As a result, we can see that the rows and columns beside and above the selected cell have been frozen, as shown in the snapshots below.

Similarly, we can use the “Unfreeze Panes” command from the “View” tab to unlock the cells which we have frozen.

Hence, explaining the examples above, we used the freezing of rows and columns in Excel.

Things to Remember

  • When we press the “Ctrl+Home” Excel Shortcut keysExcel Shortcut KeysAn Excel shortcut is a technique of performing a manual task in a quicker way.read more after giving the “Frozen Panes” command in a worksheet, instead of positioning the cell cursor in cell A1 as normal, Excel sets the cell cursor in the first unfrozen cell.The “Freeze Panes” in the worksheet cell display consist of a feature for printing a spreadsheet known as “Print Titles.” When we use Print TitlesPrint TitlesIn Excel, Print Titles is a feature that lets the users print specific row & column headings on every page of a multi-page report. You need to select “Print Titles” in the Page Layout Tab & enter the required details to perform the function. read more in a report, the columns and rows that we define as the titles are printed at the top and to the left of all data on each report page.The shortcut keys that get random access to the “Freezing Panes” command are “Alt+W+F.”In the case of freezing Excel rows and columns together, we must select the cell above, and the rows and columns need to be frozen. We do not have to select the entire row and column together for locking.

This article is a guide to Freeze Cells in Excel. We discuss how to freeze rows and columns using the “Freeze Panes” command in Excel with some examples and a downloadable Excel template. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

  • Freeze Columns in ExcelHow to Freeze Panes in Excel?What does Split Panes in Excel Mean?Hiding an Excel Column