Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
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Member (2005)
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Split window & perhaps also view a copy | Nov 4, 2014 |
The following is not exactly what you are asking, but is partly equivalent. It works in Excel 2000, so there must be a similar facility in later Excel versions. Perhaps it's already well known but, if not, it will interest somebody, I suppose.
Immediately to the right of the scroll bar at the bottom of the window that displays the worksheet, is a small upright bar. When the mouse is hovering on it, the pointer becomes a
vertical double line with left and right arrows. Click on this ... See more
The following is not exactly what you are asking, but is partly equivalent. It works in Excel 2000, so there must be a similar facility in later Excel versions. Perhaps it's already well known but, if not, it will interest somebody, I suppose.
Immediately to
the right of the scroll bar at the bottom of the window that displays the worksheet, is a small upright bar. When the mouse is hovering on it, the pointer becomes a vertical double line with left and right arrows. Click on this and drag it to the left. This splits the window into two parts, each with its own scroll bar; you can scroll either of them left and right without affecting the other one.
Unsurprisingly, you can do the same with the "split window" bar at the top of the vertical
scroll bar, to obtain a part-window in which you can scroll through the rows while still viewing the fixed set of rows in the other part-window. In fact, you can do both, and have the window split into 4 parts. To end the split-viewing function, drag the bar separating the window parts back to its starting position.
The original question would be satisfied if two such splits could be present at the same time, but that appears to be not possible.
If you're not editing both columns A and Z
of the spreadsheet while doing this, you could make a copy and then open both the copy and the original. Then you can drag the edges of the windows on these two sheets to see them at the same time; use one to view column A, and split the window of the other one so that column Z is fixed in one part and you can scroll in the other part of the window.
HTH somebody
Oliver ▲ Collapse
Hi, I would like know how is it possible to freeze different sections of anGuest
excel worksheet when the rows i want to freeze are not consecutive. For
example I would like to freeze the header row and the totals row.
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The tutorial demonstrates quick ways to freeze panes in Excel. You will learn how to quickly lock header row or/and the first column. You will also see how to freeze several panes at a time to make Excel always show certain rows or/and columns when you scroll down or right. These tips work in all modern versions of Excel 365, 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007.
As you probably know, the current versions of Excel allow using more than a million rows and over 16,000 columns per sheet. Hardly anyone will ever use them to the limit, but if your worksheet contains tens or hundreds of rows, the column headers in the top row disappear when you are scrolling down to view lower entries. The good news is that you can easily fix that inconvenience by freezing panes in Excel.
In Microsoft Excel terms, to freeze panes means to always show certain rows and/or columns at the top of a spreadsheet when scrolling. Bellow you will find the detailed steps that work in any for Excel version.
How to freeze rows in Excel
Typically, you would want to lock the first row to see the column headers when you scroll down the sheet. But sometimes your spreadsheet may contain important information in a few top rows and you may want to freeze them all. Below you will find the steps for both scenarios.
How to freeze top row (header row) in Excel
To always show the
header row, just go to the View tab, and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row. Yep, it's that simple : )
Microsoft Excel gives you a visual clue to identify a frozen row by a bit thicker and darker border below it:
Tips:
- If you are working with Excel tables rather than ranges, you do not really need to lock the first row, because the table header always stays fixed at the top, no matter how many rows down you scroll in a table.
- If you are going to print out your table and want to repeat header rows on every page, you may find this tutorial helpful - How to print row and column headers of Excel.
How to lock multiple Excel rows
Do you want to freeze several rows in your spreadsheet? No problem, you can lock as many rows as you want, as long as you always start with the top row.
- Start by selecting the row below the last row you want to freeze.
For example, if you wish to lock the top two rows, place the mouse cursor in cell A3 or select the entire row 3.
- Head over to the View tab and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
The result will be similar to what you see in the screenshot below - the top 2 rows in your Excel worksheet are frozen and will always show up.
Note. If some of the rows that you wish to lock are out of view when you apply freezing, they won't show up later, nor will you be able to scroll up to those rows. See how to avoid frozen hidden rows in Excel.
How to freeze columns in Excel
You lock columns in Excel in exactly the same way as you lock rows. And again, you can choose to freeze the first column only or multiple columns.
Lock the first column in a worksheet
Freezing the first column is as simple
as clicking View > Freeze Panes > Freeze First Column.
A little darker and thicker border to the right of column A means that the left-most column in the table is frozen.
How to freeze multiple columns in Excel
If you want to lock more than one column in a sheet, proceed in this way:
- Select the column to the right of the last column you
want to freeze. For example, if you want to freeze the first 3 columns (A - C), select the entire column D or cell D1.
Just remember that frozen columns will always start from the left-most column (A), it's not possible to lock several columns somewhere in the middle of the sheet.
- And now, follow the already familiar path, i.e View tab > Freeze panes > and again Freeze panes.
Note. Please make sure that all the columns you want to lock are visible at the moment of freezing. If some of the columns are out of view, you won't see them later. For more details, please see How to avoid hidden columns in Excel.
How to freeze multiple panes in Excel (rows and columns)
Do you wish to lock multiple rows and columns? No problem, you can do this as well, provided that you always start with the top row and first column.
To lock several rows and columns at a time, select a cell below the last row and to the right of the last column you want to freeze.
For example, to freeze the top row and first column, select cell B2, go to the View tab and click Freeze Panes under Freeze Panes:
In the same fashion, you can freeze as many Excel panes as you want. For instance, to lock the first 2 rows and 2 columns, you select cell C3; to fix 3 rows and 3 columns, select cell D4 etc. Naturally, the number of locked rows and columns does not necessarily have to be the same. For example, to freeze 2 rows and 3 columns, you select... guess which cell? Right, D3 : )
How to unfreeze panes in Excel
To unfreeze panes, just do the following: go to the
View tab, Window group, and click Freeze panes > Unfreeze Panes.
Excel Freeze Panes tips
As you have just seen, freezing panes in Excel is one of the easiest tasks to perform. However, as is often the case with Microsoft, there is much more beneath the hood. What follows below is a caveat, an artifact and a tip.
Caveat: Prevent hidden rows / columns when freezing Excel panes
When you are locking several rows or columns in a spreadsheet, you may inadvertently hide some of them, and as a result, you won't see those hidden panes later. To avoid this, make sure that all the rows and/or columns you want to lock are within eyesight at the moment of freezing.
For
example, you wish to freeze the first three rows, but row 1 is currently out of view, as shown in the screenshot below. As the result, row 1 won't show up later and you won't be able to scroll up to it. Though, you would still be able to get to the cells in a hidden frozen row using the arrow keys.
Artifact: Excel may freeze panes totally different from what you expected
Don't you believe me? Then try selecting cell A1, or the top visible row, or the leftmost visible column, click Freeze Panes and see what happens.
For example, if you select row 4 while the first 3 rows are out of view (not hidden, just above the scroll) and click Freeze Panes, what would you expect? Most obviously, rows 1 - 3 would get frozen? Nope! Microsoft Excel thinks differently and the screenshot below shows one of many possible outcomes:
So, please remember, the panes you are going to lock, both rows and columns, should always be in sight.
Tip: How to camouflage the Freeze Panes line
If you are not particularly fond of the dark freeze
panes line that Microsoft Excel draws underneath locked rows and to the right of locked columns, you can try disguising it with the help of shapes and a little creativity : )
And this is all for today, thank you for reading!