How to Freeze Panes in Excel

You have a sheet with hundreds of rows, and the column headings disappear as soon as you scroll down. Freezing panes pins the header row, the first column, or both in place so they stay on screen while the rest of the sheet moves.

Open the Freeze Panes menu

Click the View tab, then click Freeze Panes in the Window group. A menu with three options appears. On Mac, the same button is on the View tab, and the commands are also under the Window menu in the menu bar.

Freeze the top row

Choose Freeze Top Row. Row 1 stays fixed at the top while the rest of the sheet scrolls underneath it. A thin line under row 1 marks the frozen edge.

Freeze the first column

Choose Freeze First Column instead. Column A stays in place while you scroll to the right. This is the option to use when the first column holds names or IDs that you need to see against every other column.

Freeze several rows and columns at once

To freeze more than one row, more than one column, or both together, first select a cell. Excel freezes everything above and to the left of that cell. Then click View, Freeze Panes, Freeze Panes.

For example, to keep row 1 and column A fixed, select cell B2. To keep rows 1 and 2 and columns A and B fixed, select cell C3. To freeze only the top three rows, select cell A4.

If the sheet is scrolled when you do this, Excel freezes from the current view rather than from row 1, so press Ctrl + Home (Mac: Fn + Ctrl + Left Arrow) first to return to the top-left corner.

Unfreeze the panes

Click View, Freeze Panes, Unfreeze Panes. This option only appears while something is frozen, and it replaces the third menu item. You must unfreeze before you can freeze a different set of rows or columns.

Freezing applies to one sheet at a time. Each worksheet in the workbook keeps its own freeze setting, so repeat the steps on any other sheet that needs it. Frozen panes do not change how the sheet prints. To repeat a header row on every printed page, use Page Layout, Print Titles instead.