Excel Tutorial: Freezing and Unfreezing Rows And Columns in Excel

Freezing and unfreezing rows and columns from scrolling is useful for larger sheets. If your worksheet data spans beyond a single screen display, you can freeze the column and row headings so they continue to be displayed when you scroll to other areas of the worksheet. You can specify that the top row or first column of the worksheet be frozen or select a specific range of cells to remain displayed. Follow these steps to freeze rows or columns from scrolling in Excel:

  1. Select range B5:F5.
  2. Choose Freeze Panes from the View tab.
  3. From the resulting menu choose Freeze Panes.
  4. Excel freezes everything above row 5.
  5. Scroll down to row 25 and notice that the titles at the top of the worksheet remain displayed.
  6. Choose Freeze Panes from the View tab and choose Unfreeze Panes

Options to Freeze Excel columns and rolls from scrolling

Option

Action

Freeze Panes

Keeps rows and columns visible above the current selection

Freeze Top Row

Keeps the first row in the worksheet visible.

Freeze First Column

Keeps the first column in the worksheet visible.