Freeze Panes In Excel 2007

Long Tables With Many Columns

By default, when you scroll down a table of data, the colun headings you so lovingly crafted will disappear off the screen. If you have a small table with only a few columns, it will probably be easy to remember what data is held in each column and so it doesn't matter that you can't see those column headings. On the other hand, if you have a large table that has many columns, without those headings to remind you, you may very soon forget which column is which. This is where freezing panes comes in. When you freeze panes in Excel, the headings will remain fixed in place while the data scrolls.

How To Freeze Panes

Firstly, you don't need to work on data that has been converted to a table to freeze panes, although in this example I am. Click View > Window > Freeze Panes. You get three options:

We'll look at the option to Freeze Top Row first as that's the most simple to understand. Column headings are often displayed in the top row, which is why freezing the top row is a popular option. When you choose this option, a discrete line appears beneath the top row, indicating the frozen region. When you scroll downwards, the top row will always be displayed where it currently is.

To remove the frozen panes, click the same Freeze Panes button again but this time select Unfreeze Panes. This unfreezes all rows and columns.

It may be that you have column headings that span more than one row, or a even row headings. These can all be frozen by making a carefully chosen cell active and then choosing the Freeze Panes option from the Freeze Panes menu. For example, consider the following example.

If the table of data was wider, so that you had to scroll horizontally, freezing the two leftmost columns in addition to the top row would be a good idea. Then as you scrolled right, you would still be able to see the year and financial period that the data related to, as they would be frozen in place. To freeze the top row and two leftmost columns, you must first of all make the cell active whose top left corner rests at the intersection of the bottom of the row and right edge of the column you want to freeze. It's easier to show you!