Table of Contents
- 1.Introduction
- 2. The issue at hand
- 3.How to freeze a row or column
- 4. Conclusion
Introduction:
You may want to freeze a row or column in your spreadsheet, so that it does not move when you scroll up and down, or side to side. There are many reasons you may want to freeze a row or a column, but there is usually a main purpose. Oftentimes, we use the top columns to be a header, so like the label for what columns represent. Sometimes, our spreadsheets becomes so large, that you no longer see your headers when you scroll down to enter data. You can solve this issue by simply freezing the top row, so that you always have it in your vision, no matter how far down you scroll.
In a way, this skill fits hand in hand with the skills one needs to format a spreadsheet, such as merging cells or adding color. At the end of the day, freezing rows or columns does not add functionality to the spreadsheet, rather it makes the data much more comprehensible and easier to understand. If you want to read our article on formatting, you can go to it by clicking the link here. Ultimately, all these skills we teach you to help you create spreadsheets that are easy to read and understand. Hopefully with these skills, you can impress your boss or colleagues.
The issue at hand:
Let’s say we have this spreadsheet here:
We have the labels, in the first three rows. However, as you scroll down, you may notice that they disappear. You can look in the image below to see.
Notice how if you scroll down a couple of rows, you are no longer able to see the headers. It becomes very hard to easily reference which column refers to what. We can easily resolve this issue by freezing the top three rows. Follow these simple steps, where we show you how to exactly freeze a row or a column.
This is how to freeze a row or column:
Step 1: Click the bottom row you want to be frozen
Step 2: Click View
Step 3: Go to Freeze
Step 4: Select up to current row
You may notice there are many different options. Luckily, they are pretty self-explanatory. If you select 1 row, it freezes the first row. If you select 1 column, it freezes the first column. Pretty straightforward right?
What we did by clicking the third row, is specify that we want it to freeze up to the third row. If we did not click the third row, the option to freeze “Up to current row (3)†would not appear. That is why we had to select the third row.
Final Product:
By completing these steps, you should have what we see in the video below.
As you may notice in the above video, we kept scrolling up and down repeatedly.. However, the top three rows always remain at the top, no matter how much we scrolled. This is what happens when you freeze rows. You can now easily see what column refers to what, no matter how you move through your spreadsheet. This ultimately allows you to create much more clear, organized, and aesthetically pleasing spreadsheets.
Conclusion:
We hope you learned how to freeze a row or a column in today’s article. If you want more information on how to freeze a row or column, make sure to check out Google’s official article here. It is quite a useful guide, and provides even more information that we have put on here.
We hope that you have learned a lot. As always, happy spreadsheeting! 🙂
