Oct 06, 2017 Hello. I'm supporting office at my work, some users having the same issue with excel 2016, when working, suddenly the excel file freeze, and they can't click or edit any cell in the sheet, but can access the 'file' menu, although there is no titles seen, can click on then. Excel Freeze Panes option is used to lock row or column headings. So that when you scroll down or view the rest portions of the sheet its top row or first column gets stick on the screen. In this way, heading will always appear no matter how you scroll in your worksheet. Ok I'll be more precise, my excel is configured to go to the cell underneath the active cell after pressing excel. So, when I select a cell a blue halo appears around it, I enter a number (the blue halo disappears while entering the number this is normal), I press enter and the blue halo does not appear on the cell beneath (excel is semi - frozen). Each time the selection changes, it checks upward in the first column for content like 'Summary.': if the worksheet isn't already frozen to that row, it will make that adjustment. One difficulty is that to scroll up you have to click on one of the rows in the top pane.

1. Excel Frozen On Mac
2. Excel Frozen Cells

Just assume you are school teacher and have around 90 students in a class which is divided into various sections. Now, you have to collate their marks in every subject in an excel.

If you are using a 15-inch laptop to do this, then as soon as you go to the 25^th row or later you lose the context of which column is for which subject. All of this happens because your header or first row is not fixed and keeps changing as you scroll down. But don’t worry we are here to help you out. 🙂

In this post we are going to help you on how to freeze rows or columns in excel. Freeing in excel will turn some cells (rows and / or columns) to be stagnant and these cells would not change if you move left or right or scroll up or down. There are various ways to freeze cells in excel.

We have listed all the methods below, if you do not want to go through the entire post then you may directly click on the type of excel freeze option you are looking for:

• Freeze First Row
• Freeze First Column
• Freeze Panes
  1. Freeze Multiple Rows
  2. Freeze Multiple Columns
  3. Freeze Rows & Columns at same time

Along with helping you on how to freeze in excel, we will also help you to unfreeze and troubleshooting issues that you might encounter:

• Unfreeze Panes
• Freeze panes versus Splitting Panes
• Freeze Pane is Disabled

Freeze First Row

This feature could be used to freeze a particular row or header that you would need to refer every time while working on excel. In this option only the top row will freeze.

• Open the sheet where in you want to freeze any row / header, as an example we would like to freeze the top row highlighted in yellow

• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon as shown in above image
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

Excel Frozen On Mac

• Select “Freeze Top Row” option

• If you would like to freeze any other row, then scroll down and make that row appear as first in your sheet and then repeat Step 2 to 4.

That’s it. You are all set now. As seen in above image you can now scroll to any corner of the page and you would see that the top row remains intact all the time without any change.

Please note that this option works as long as first row in excel is the one that you really want to freeze. If you have scrolled in the middle of the sheet and Row 30 is appearing as first row, then this option would freeze Row 30 and not Row 1.

Additionally, if you are geek and would like to do it directly using a keyboard shortcut, then please press “Alt + W” followed by “F” and then “R”. Please note that this is not an in-built shortcut, rather it’s the same thing from keyboard as we do from mouse.

Freeze First Column

This feature could be used to freeze a particular column that you would need to refer while working on excel. In this option only the first column will freeze.

• Open the sheet where in you want to freeze the column, as an example we would like to freeze the column A – Product

• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon as shown in above image
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

• Select “Freeze First Column” option

• If you would like to freeze any other column, then move right or left and make that column appear as first in your sheet and then repeat Step 2 to 4.

That’s it. You are all set now. As seen in above image you can now move to most right corner of the page and you would see that the first column sticks there. Please note that this option works as long as first column in excel is the one that you really want to freeze. If you have shifted right in the middle of the sheet and Column M is appearing as first row, then this option would freeze Column M and not Column A.

If you would like to do it directly using a keyboard shortcut, then please press “Alt + W” followed by “F” and then “C”. Please note that this is not an in-built shortcut, rather it’s the same thing from keyboard as we do from mouse.

Freeze Panes

This feature could be used to freeze multiple rows, columns or both at the same time. However, this could be done only for the consecutive rows or columns.

Freeze Panes – Multiple Rows

• Open the sheet where in you want to freeze the multiple rows, keep the first row on top and click after the last row till where you want to freeze, as an example we would like to freeze from Row 1 to Row 13 so we will click on Row 14

• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon as shown in above image
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

Excel Frozen Cells

• Select “Freeze Panes” option

That’s it. You are all set now. As seen in above image you can now scroll down and Row 1 to Row 13 will be kept intact without any changes. You can select the range of rows from middle as well like – Row 13 to Row 30, however to do so you will have to ensure that you scroll up and keep Row 13 as your first row in the sheet and repeat the steps listed above. However, be careful as doing so some of your rows (i.e. the ones before Row 13) will be hidden.

Freeze Panes – Multiple Columns

• Open the sheet where in you want to freeze the multiple columns, keep the first column to the left and click next to the last column till where you want to freeze, as an example we would like to freeze from Column A to E, so we will click on Column F

• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon as shown in above image
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

• Select “Freeze Panes” option

That’s it. You are all set now. As seen in above image you can now move towards right and Column A to E will be kept intact without any changes. You can select the range of columns from middle as well like – Column F to Column L, however to do so you will have to ensure that you move to the left and keep Column F as your first column in the sheet and repeat the steps listed above. However, be careful as doing so some of your columns (i.e. the ones before Column E) will be hidden.

Freeze Panes – Multiple Rows and Columns both

If you have followed the post till now, then you would have already figured out how this has to be done. Yes, you are right we are going to club both the above listed approaches here. Follow us below:

• Open the sheet where in you want to freeze the multiple rows and columns, keep the first row on top and first column to the left then click next to the cell of the last column and row till where you want to freeze, as an example we would like to freeze from Row 1 to 13 and Column A to E, so we will click on Cell F14

• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon as shown in above image
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

• Select “Freeze Panes” option

That’s it. You are all set now. As seen in above image you can now scroll down and Row 1 to 13 will remain intact and likewise you can move towards right and Column A to E will be kept intact without any changes. You can select the range of columns from middle as well like – Row 17 to 27 and Column F to L, however to do so you will have to ensure that you scroll up and keep Row 17 as your first row and keep Column F as your first column in the sheet and repeat the steps listed above. Be careful here as rows before Row 17 and columns before column F will be hidden.

Unfreeze Panes:

If you have frozen the wrong rows and columns, then you could easily undo it by using “Unfreeze Panes” option. This would remove all the frozen rows and or columns in your excel. This will also work if you have received the sheet from someone else and you are not able to see all the rows and columns despite of removing all filters and unhiding rows columns. To unfreeze panes –

• Open the sheet wherein you want to unfreeze rows and or columns
• Now, navigate to the “View” tab in the Excel Ribbon
• Click on the “Freeze Panes” button

• Select “Unfreeze Panes” option as shown above

With this all the rows and or columns would unfreeze, as shown in above image. Please note that you would not see the “Unfreeze Panes” option if there are not any frozen rows columns. This option would be available only and only when there is some row and or column frozen already.

If you would like to unfreeze panes it directly using a keyboard shortcut, then please press “Alt + W” followed by “F” and then again “F”. Please note that this is not an in-built shortcut, rather it’s the same thing from keyboard as we do from mouse.

Freeze panes versus Splitting Panes:

Excel also provides you an excellent option to Split Panes which divides the window into different panes that each pane scrolls separately. This option is present in Excel Ribbon, View tab next to Freeze Option.

So as visible in the above image after using split option the content of same sheet is visible in 4 separate panes and all panes have their different scroll options.

We personally trust and use Freeze option much than Split, as Freeze allows you to limit the data movement by freezing it rather than adding multiple views of same data wherein you easily get distracted and confused while data entry.

Is Freeze Pane option disabled?

If you have come across a case wherein the Freeze Pane option is disabled in your sheet, then it must be due to one of the following reasons:

• The most common reason of Freeze Panes option disablement is that your sheet must have been opened in “Page Layout” mode (as shown in below image)

In order to correct it simply navigate to “View Tab” in the excel ribbon and select “Normal” or “Page Break” view.

• The “Freeze Panes” option could also be disabled if you excel has been protected for windows. You would need to unprotect it to enable the freeze option.

So, this was all about how to freeze rows and columns in Excel. Hope you enjoyed our tutorial. Please feel free to share your feedback and queries. Keep Exceling 🙂