Home > Skills > Freeze Panes
Easy steps to freeze Excel rows and columns, and which option to use. How to fix and avoid problems with hidden rows and columns when freezing spreadsheets.
Lock Rows and Columns in Place
-- Freeze Top Row
-- Freeze First Column
-- Freeze Panes
Unlock Rows and Columns
Cannot Unhide Rows
Navigation with Freeze Panes
Freeze Pane Settings Disappear
Get the Workbook
More Tutorials
Lock Rows and Columns in Place
If you want to scroll down the worksheet, and lock the heading rows in place, so they're always visible, you can use one of the Excel Freeze Panes commands.
With a few rows and columns locked in place, you can scroll the rest of the spreadsheet, while keeping your row labels at the left, and column headings in place, at the top of the screen. This makes it easier to work with a large Excel worksheet, or Excel tables.
Here are the quick steps for setting up freeze panes on your spreadsheets:
- On the Microsoft Excel Ribbon, click the View tab
- To see the Freeze Pane options, click the arrow on the Freeze Panes button
The 3 Freeze Pane options work differently, and each option is explained below.
-- Freeze Top Row
-- Freeze First Column
-- Freeze Panes
Freeze Top Row
If you select the Freeze Top Row command, it does not automatically freeze Row 1 on the worksheet.
- Any cell on the worksheet can be selected
- A single row is frozen at the top of the worksheet
- First row that is VISIBLE in the Excel window is frozen
- For example, row 7 is frozen in the screen shot below, because rows 1-6 were not visible, when the Freeze panes option Freeze Top Row was applied
After freezing the top row:
- The frozen row stays in place if you scroll up or down on the worksheet
- If the frozen row has other rows above it, you can't scroll up to see those rows.
- To see any rows that are above the frozen row, use the Unfreeze command.
- A thin line appears at the bottom of the last frozen row on the Excel spreadsheet
Freeze First Column
If you select the Freeze First Column command, it does not automatically freeze Column A on the worksheet.
- Any cell on the worksheet can be selected
- A single column is frozen at the left side of the worksheet
- The first VISIBLE column in the Excel window is frozen
- For example, column C is frozen in the screen shot below, because it was the leftmost visible column when Freeze First Column option was applied
After freezing the first column:
- The frozen column stays in place if you scroll left or right on the worksheet
- If the frozen column has other columns to the left of it, you can't scroll left to see those columns.
- To see any column to the left of the frozen column, use the Unfreeze command.
Freeze Panes
The Freeze Panes command gives you more options on what should be frozen on the worksheet. Instead of a single row or a single column, you can freeze one or more specific rows at the top, as well as one or more columns at the left.
With Freeze Panes command, the freeze point is set based on what is selected on the worksheet
- Tip: Freeze Panes is the command that I use most often, so I've added it to my Quick Access Toolbar. That way, I apply freeze panes to the selected cell location, with a single click.
The following table shows which VISIBLE rows and VISIBLE columns will be frozen, based on what you've selected on the worksheet, and which cell is active.
| Selection | Active Cell | Frozen VISIBLE Rows | Frozen VISIBLE Columns |
| Cell(s) | A1 | All visible rows above the centre of the Excel window | All visible columns to the left of centre in the Excel window |
| Cell(s) | Any cell except A1 | All visible rows above the active cell | All visible columns to the left of the active cell |
| Entire row(s) | A1 | All visible rows above the centre of the Excel window | All visible columns to the left of centre in the Excel window |
| Entire row(s) | Any cell except A1 | All visible rows above the active cell | None |
| Entire column(s) | A1 | All visible rows above the centre of the Excel window | All visible columns to the left of centre in the Excel window |
| Entire column(s) | Any cell except A1 | None | All visible columns to the left of the active cell |
| Entire worksheet | A1 | All visible rows above the centre of the Excel window | All visible columns to the left of centre in the Excel window |
| Entire worksheet | Any cell except A1 | All visible rows above the active cell | All visible columns to the left of the active cell |
After Using Freeze Panes
After using the Freeze Panes command:
- Any frozen columns stay in place if you scroll left or right on the worksheet
- Any frozen rows stay in place if you scroll up or down on the worksheet
- If frozen columns have other columns to the left of them, you can't scroll left to see them.
- If the frozen rows have other rows above them, you can't scroll up to see them.
- To see those off-screen rows or columns, use the Unfreeze command.
Unlock Rows and Columns
After any type of Freeze Panes command has been used, you can use the Unfreeze Panes command to remove the freezing.
- Select any cell on the the worksheet
- On the Excel Ribbon, click the View tab
- Click the Unfreeze Pane command (it replaces the Freeze Pane command)
- NOTE: You can also change the freezing to Top Row or First Column, instead of removing the freezing completely
Navigation with Freeze Panes
On an Excel worksheet, you can use navigation shortcuts, to move to the start or end of the used range.
If the worksheet does NOT have the Freeze Panes feature turned on:
- Ctrl + Home - Takes you to cell A1 on the worksheet, at the top left
- Ctrl + End - Takes you to the bottom right cell in the worksheet's used range.
If the worksheet DOES have the Freeze Panes feature turned on, those shortcut keys always take you to a cell within the unfrozen area.
Shortcuts with Freeze Panes
The following 3 screen shots show where the shortcuts take you for 3 types of frozen panes.
Frozen Rows at Top
If there are frozen rows at the top of the sheet, here's what the navigation shortcuts do:
- Ctrl + Home - Takes you to top left in unfrozen rows
- Ctrl + End - Takes you to the bottom right cell in unfrozen rows
Frozen Columns at Left
If there are frozen columns at the left of the sheet, here's what the navigation shortcuts do:
- Ctrl + Home - Takes you to top left in unfrozen columns
- Ctrl + End - Takes you to the bottom right cell in unfrozen columns
Frozen Rows and Columns
If there are frozen rows at the top of the sheet, and frozen columns at the left of the sheet, here's what the navigation shortcuts do:
- Ctrl + Home - Takes you to top left in unfrozen rows and columns
- Ctrl + End - Takes you to the bottom right cell in unfrozen rows and columns
Usually it's easy to unhide rows or columns in an Excel worksheet, but occasionally you can run into problems. In these cases, try one of the following techniques:
-- Unfreeze Panes
-- Extend Selection
Unfreeze Panes
In some cases, the rows or columns aren't really hidden. There are frozen rows or columns, and the "hidden" sections are out of view.
This short video shows the problem, and how to fix it. There are written steps below the video.
Show Rows Hidden by Freezing
To see if freezing is the problem of hidden rows, follow these steps:
- Select any cell on the the worksheet
- On the Excel Ribbon, click the View tab
- If there is an Unfreeze Pane command in the drop down list, click that, to unfreeze the locked sections
The "hidden" rows or columns might reappear after that, when you scroll to the top or left of the worksheet.
Extend Selection
If unfreezing didn't fix the problem of hidden rows, this extend selection trick might help. This short video shows the "Extend Selection" technique, and the written steps are below the video.
Extend Selection Steps
When the hidden rows are at the very top of the sheet, it's hard to select the hidden rows, in order to unhide them.
Try the following steps, to extend the selection, and show the hidden rows:
- Press on the row button for the first visible row
- Drag up, onto the Select All button
- Right-click on the first visible row button, and click Unhide
NOTE: For hidden columns, press the first visible column button, and drag to the left.
Freeze Pane Settings Disappear
Sometimes, your freeze panes, gridlines, and other Excel window settings might disappear automatically.
This usually happens if you open a new window for and Excel file, so you can see two views of it at the same time, in separate windows. For example, you might open a second window to see the cell formulas in one window, and the formula results in another window.
When you do this, the new window uses the default window settings, instead of your custom settings.
Then, if you close the original window first, and leave the new window open, the custom settings are forgotten.
Avoid the Problem
Here's how to freeze rows in Excel, and avoid the problem of losing those settings.
If you have opened one or more new windows in a workbook, be careful when you’re closing them. You’ll see a window number, along with the file name, in each window’s title bar.
- Leave the original window (FreezePanes.xlsx:1) open
- Close any other windows (such as FreezePanes.xlsx:2) first
This short video shows the steps for setting and preserving your Excel window settings
Get the Sample File
To try the freeze pane tips on this page, get the Excel Freeze Rows and Columns sample file. The file is in xlsx format, and zipped. There are no macros in the workbook.
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