Uncover the Mystery Cell

Keep Excel row and column title cells visible.

JoAnne Robb

Do you get lost inside your spreadsheets? If you frequently find yourself scrolling up and down or left and right to see which column or row you're working in, you can lock certain blocks of cells in place so they appear no matter what part of the spreadsheet you're viewing. Excel calls this "freezing panes."

Let's say all your column header titles appear in row 3, and the row labels appear in column A. To freeze these areas, click on cell B4 (the cell directly below the row of headers, and just to the right of the row labels), then select the Window, Freeze Panes menu command. Excel displays two black lines, one running horizontally beneath the column headers, and one vertically to the right of the row headers. When you scroll through the spreadsheet, the rows above the black line and the columns to the left of the black line will stay put.

If you want to freeze only a top row or only a left column, highlight the row directly below the one you want frozen (or the column immediately to the right of the one you want frozen) and click Window, Freeze Panes.

To thaw those frozen panes, click the Window, Unfreeze Panes menu. The dark lines disappear, and you'll be able to scroll through your spreadsheet normally.