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A long table to practise locking headers on — plus fifteen more Excel files. Free, instant, yours to keep.

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A long table from this video — long enough that freezing actually matters
Fifteen more files: Flash Fill, timesheets, dropdowns, barcodes
An automatic table of contents and a data-masking file
15 keyboard shortcuts set up to drill until they stick
Works in Excel 365, 2021 and 2019 — PC and Mac

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One practical Excel tip a week.

How to Freeze Multiple Rows and Columns in Excel

Watch the 5-minute video or follow the written steps below. The practice file is in the free pack above.

Step-by-step

Freeze Panes keeps header rows or ID columns on screen while you scroll a long table. It always takes two steps: select the right cell, then freeze. The rule to remember: Excel freezes everything above and to the left of the cell you select.

1. Freeze several top rows

To freeze the top two rows, select the first cell of row 3 (A3), or the whole of row 3. Then go to View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes. Scroll down and rows 1 and 2 stay put. To freeze the top 10 rows, you’d select A11.

2. Unfreeze

Go to View > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes.

3. Freeze just the top row

If you only have one header row, there’s a shortcut that needs no selection: View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row.

4. Freeze several columns

To keep columns A, B and C visible as you scroll right, select any cell in column D in row 1 (or the whole of column D), then Freeze Panes. A darker line shows where the frozen area ends.

5. Freeze rows and columns together

Select the cell just below the rows and just right of the columns you want to keep. To freeze rows 1–2 and columns A–C, select D3 and choose Freeze Panes. Everything above and left of D3 stays visible in both directions.

The limits

You can only freeze rows at the top and columns on the left. Rows or columns in the middle of the sheet can’t be frozen; use View > Split if you need two independent views.

YOUR NEXT STEP

Above and left of the cell you picked. That's the whole rule.

Freeze Panes confuses people because nobody states the rule — they just show the menu. One sentence and you never look it up again. That’s the whole category: small things with a simple explanation that somehow never gets given. The course is about a hundred of them.

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Andreas Exadaktylos · Microsoft-certified Excel instructor · mellontraining.com