Please make sure that all the columns you want to lock are visible at the moment of freezing. And now, follow the already familiar path, i.e View tab > Freeze panes > and again Freeze panes.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. For example, if you want to freeze the first 3 columns (A - C), select the entire column D or cell D1. Select the column to the right of the last column you want to freeze.If you want to lock more than one column in a sheet, proceed in this way: Lock the first column in a worksheetįreezing the first column is as simple as clicking View > Freeze Panes > Freeze First Column.Ī little darker and thicker border to the right of column A means that the left-most column in the table is frozen.

And again, you can choose to freeze the first column only or multiple columns. You lock columns in Excel in exactly the same way as you lock rows. See how to avoid frozen hidden rows in Excel. 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. Microsoft Excel gives you a visual clue to identify a frozen row by a bit thicker and darker border below it:

To always show the header row, just go to the View tab, and click Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row. How to freeze top row (header row) in Excel Below you will find the steps for both scenarios. But sometimes your spreadsheet may contain important information in a few top rows and you may want to freeze them all. Typically, you would want to lock the first row to see the column headers when you scroll down the sheet. Bellow you will find the detailed steps that work in any for Excel version. In Microsoft Excel terms, to freeze panes means to always show certain rows and/or columns at the top of a spreadsheet when scrolling. The good news is that you can easily fix that inconvenience by freezing panes in Excel. 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. These tips work in all modern versions of Excel 365, 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 20.Īs you probably know, the current versions of Excel allow using more than a million rows and over 16,000 columns per sheet.

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. You will learn how to quickly lock header row or/and the first column. The tutorial demonstrates quick ways to freeze panes in Excel.

How to freeze top 3 rows in excel