How to freeze panes in Google Sheets

How to resize cells in Google Sheets

This article will explain in detail how to freeze panes in Google Sheets. Sheets is an outstanding utility that allows you to record, calculate and present data. It works similarly to Microsoft Excel.

Furthermore, Sheets offers almost the same options as an MS Excel spreadsheet and is a free-to-use software.

In addition, the options in both the Google Sheets app and Excel spreadsheet application are very similar.

If you are working on a large spreadsheet with a lot of data, it can sometimes become challenging to scroll up and down multiple times to look at specific data.

It could be a Google spreadsheet or an Excel worksheet.

In addition, as the number of rows and columns increases in a spreadsheet, it becomes cumbersome and more difficult to manage.

In the case of large and data-heavy spreadsheets, it becomes essential to freeze panes while scrolling.

Otherwise, you can forget what Column A or B corresponded to in your spreadsheet when you scroll down, and if you have frozen a pane, it will be in your view at all times.

If you have not frozen some rows and columns, then when you scroll down, you can lose sight of the header row.

Similarly, when you scroll to the right side, the data in the side columns will disappear and you will lose the column header.

By using the freeze pane command in Google Sheets, you can lock rows and columns in place.

That way, you’ll be able to keep the row headings and column headings in view as you go through your spreadsheet.

Let’s learn how you can freeze rows and columns in Google Sheets.

Table of Contents

  1. How to freeze panes in Google Sheets
    1. Steps to freeze rows in Google Sheets using the mouse shortcut trick:
    2. Steps to freeze columns in Google Sheets from the top menu bar:
    3. How to unfreeze rows and columns in Google Sheets?
  2. Wrap Up

How to freeze panes in Google Sheets

You can freeze rows in Google Sheets using the “View option” from the menu bar at the top.

For freezing panes, while dealing with multiple rows, you will mostly be freezing the first row.

By default, the freeze row command will freeze the current row and the frozen row will always remain in your view.

However, if you require to freeze other rows, you can also do so with ease.

  • Select the row that you would like to freeze. In our example, we want to freeze the header or top row so that we know where we are in a column;
  • If the top row is not frozen, then as we scroll below, the row headings will also disappear, and we won’t know where we are in a particular column;
  • Now, go to the “View menu” in the menu bar at the top and then go to the “Freeze”. After that, please select “1 row” from the freeze options available, as shown below;
  • Now, you can see that even if we scroll down to work on our spreadsheet, the headings in the top row are visible because we have frozen the top row.

Steps to freeze rows in Google Sheets using the mouse shortcut trick:

There is an alternate and faster method to freeze rows in a Google spreadsheet.

This method does not require the freeze panes option to freeze a specific row or column.

To freeze a row using the mouse shortcut trick, please follow the steps mentioned below:

  • Move your mouse cursor to the top left side of your Google sheet. As you move the cursor toward the top left side, you will notice that the mouse cursor will change from an arrow ⇦ to a hand symbol ✋;
  • Once you see the hand symbol, you will notice a grey line. Drag the line below to the top row because we want to freeze it. Once you drag it down to the top row, you will notice that the entire row is now locked;
  • We have now successfully frozen the top row. Even if we scroll down, the row headings will not disappear.

Let’s now move to learn how you can freeze columns in a Google spreadsheet.

Steps to freeze columns in Google Sheets from the top menu bar:

You can also freeze columns using the top menu bar in Google Sheets. You can either freeze a single column or you can freeze multiple columns after you click freeze panes.

Please follow the steps below to freeze columns in Google Sheets:

  • Select the column or columns that you would like to freeze in your spreadsheet. To do that, simply move the rectangular box in Google Sheets to where you want the columns to be frozen. For example, we want to freeze columns till the “Phone Number” column. So, we have moved the box to Column F in our example spreadsheet;
  • Now, please go to the top menu bar and select the “View” tab. Then, please go to “Freeze” and then select “Up to current column (F)” as shown in the image below;
  • We have now successfully frozen our required multiple columns. Now, as you scroll toward the right side, Columns A – F will still be in your view. The frozen columns will remain in place as you scroll toward the right side.

How to unfreeze rows and columns in Google Sheets?

If you want to unfreeze any number of selected rows, please access the “View” tab in the top menu bar. Then, go to the “Freeze” option and select “No rows”.

Similarly, if you wish to unfreeze columns or frozen panes, click the “View” menu in the top menu bar. After that, navigate to “Freeze” and select “No columns”.

Wrap Up

Google Sheets provides the user plenty of flexibility to work on different worksheets. Much like an Excel spreadsheet, a Google spreadsheet contains numerous rows and columns.

While working with large amounts of data, freezing rows and freezing columns in your Google Sheets spreadsheet will lock specific rows and columns in place.

After that, if you scroll down or to the right side, the frozen rows and columns will always remain in your view.

In this article, we learned different ways to freeze and unfreeze columns and rows in Google Sheets.

We hope that now you’re able to increase your productivity by freezing a selected cell (rows and columns) whilst working on data-heavy spreadsheets.

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