Excel Tip of the Week: Freezing Panes

Today’s topic is freezing panes.

Sometimes you just have too much data to fit on your screen. In those situations, it is useful to use the freeze panes feature to help with navigation and ease of viewing. In this post I’ll cover all three options Excel gives you for freezing, and provide you with the opportunity to practice all three.

The freeze panes feature is accessed by clicking “View” and then in the “Window” group selecting “Freeze Panes” (Keyboard shortcut: Alt → W → F). You should now see the three options I mentioned:

These options are fairly straightforward, but as always working through an example will really help with gaining a full understanding. I’ll start at the bottom of the list and work my way up. Download the example spreadsheet here. This spreadsheet will be used for all three examples.

Freeze First Column
You would use this option if your data contained many columns of information and you wanted to always be able to see the first column as you scrolled to the right.

In the example spreadsheet there is a six year, month by month analysis of a (fake) real estate deal. It stretches all the way to column BV. As you scroll to the right it becomes a mess of numbers. In order to see what each row actually is you’ll need to freeze the first column. To do so, select the “Freeze First Column” option (Keyboard shortcut: Alt → W → F → C) and then observe what happens as you scroll to the right.

Freeze First Row
This option would be used if you have many rows of data with important headings listed on the top row of your data which need to always be seen as you scroll down.

In the example spreadsheet there is a long list of office real estate properties on the tab labeled “Freeze First Row” (all numbers have been changed from their originals). Notice all the different square footage numbers. These would be very easy to mix up unless you were able to see the headings at all times. To do so, select the “Freeze First Row” option (Keyboard shortcut: Alt → W → F → R) and then observe what happens as you scroll down the list.

Freeze Panes
This is the more dynamic and flexible option. If you choose this option, Excel will freeze both columns and rows based on your current selection. You are able to freeze more than one row or column using this feature.

In as basic terms as I can put it, Freeze Panes will freeze whatever is to the left and above your selection.

In the example spreadsheet you are given a bunch of financial data for various discount stores (yep, the raw data from the Dollar General Case). It is important as you scroll through the data to keep the row headings and companies visible, as well as the fiscal year. To do so, place your cursor into cell C2 and then select the “Freeze Panes” option. (Keyboard shortcut: Alt → W → F → F)

If you want to use Freeze Panes to freeze just a column(s) you have to select the entire column to the right and then Freeze Panes. Same with freezing just rows, you have to select the entire row below it.

Finally, if you would like to remove the frozen panes just click the same button again (Keyboard shortcut: Alt → W → F → F)