How to Freeze Panes in Excel

In a long list, the headings scroll out of sight after a screenful of rows, and you're left guessing which column is Amount and which is Qty. Freeze Panes pins rows at the top of the window, columns at the left, or both, so they stay in view while the rest of the sheet scrolls. It only changes what you see on screen: nothing in your data moves. On the ribbon it's View then Window then Freeze Panes.

Where to find it

View › Window › Freeze Panes. The menu has three choices: freeze at the selected cell, freeze only the top row, or freeze only the first column.

Ribbon: go to the View tab, click Freeze Panes in the Window group and pick one of the three choices.
Keyboard: there's no Ctrl shortcut, but you can use the ribbon's key tips. Press and release Alt, then W, F and one more letter: F for Freeze Panes, R for Freeze Top Row, C for Freeze First Column.
Search: type freeze in the Search box at the top of the Excel window.

There's no right-click command for freezing.

Freeze the top row

This order list has its headings in row 1. In a real list with hundreds of orders, they vanish as soon as you scroll down.

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Order	Date	Customer	Region	Product	Amount
2	1,001	2026-09-01	Bright Cafe	East	Paper	240
3	1,002	2026-09-01	Oak Books	West	Toner	515
4	1,003	2026-09-02	Corner Deli	North	Pens	36
5	1,004	2026-09-03	Blue Gym	South	Folders	88
6	1,005	2026-09-03	Sun Bakery	East	Paper	180
7	1,006	2026-09-04	Lake Clinic	West	Labels	64
8	1,007	2026-09-07	Pine Studio	North	Toner	430
9	1,008	2026-09-07	River Hotel	South	Pens	52
10	1,009	2026-09-08	Oak Books	West	Paper	300
11	1,010	2026-09-09	Bright Cafe	East	Folders	120
12	1,011	2026-09-10	Blue Gym	North	Toner	645

An order list with its headings in row 1. Without freezing, row 1 scrolls away with everything else.

Scroll to the top
Press Ctrl+Home so that row 1 is the first row in the window. Freeze Top Row freezes whichever row is at the top of the window at the moment, so this matters.
Freeze the top row
Go to View then Window then Freeze Panes and choose Freeze Top Row. It doesn't matter which cell is selected.

Scroll down to check

A thin dark line appears under row 1. Scroll down: the orders move up under row 1, but the headings stay where they are.

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Order	Date	Customer	Region	Product	Amount
2	1,001	2026-09-01	Bright Cafe	East	Paper	240
3	1,002	2026-09-01	Oak Books	West	Toner	515
4	1,003	2026-09-02	Corner Deli	North	Pens	36
5	1,004	2026-09-03	Blue Gym	South	Folders	88
6	1,005	2026-09-03	Sun Bakery	East	Paper	180
7	1,006	2026-09-04	Lake Clinic	West	Labels	64
8	1,007	2026-09-07	Pine Studio	North	Toner	430
9	1,008	2026-09-07	River Hotel	South	Pens	52
10	1,009	2026-09-08	Oak Books	West	Paper	300
11	1,010	2026-09-09	Bright Cafe	East	Folders	120
12	1,011	2026-09-10	Blue Gym	North	Toner	645

After Freeze Top Row, row 1 (amber) stays at the top of the window while the orders below it scroll.

Freeze the first column

On a wide sheet the problem is sideways: scroll right to see Saturday and Sunday and the names in column A disappear. Choose View then Window then Freeze Panes, then Freeze First Column. As with the top row, scroll all the way left first, because Excel freezes the leftmost column in the window.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Name	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
2	Priya	8	8	7	8	6	0	0
3	Marcus	6	6	6	6	6	4	0
4	Lena	8	9	8	8	8	0	0
5	Omar	0	5	5	5	5	8	4
6	Grace	7	7	7	7	7	0	0
7	Tom	4	4	0	4	4	6	6

Freeze First Column keeps the names in column A (amber) on screen while the days scroll to the right.

Freeze Top Row and Freeze First Column don't add up: choosing one replaces the other. To keep both the headings and the names in view, use Freeze Panes at a cell, below.

Freeze rows and columns at the same time

The first choice in the menu, Freeze Panes, freezes at the selected cell: every row above it and every column to its left stay put.

Select the cell below and to the right
To keep row 1 and column A on screen, scroll to the top left and click B2.
Freeze the panes
Choose View then Window then Freeze Panes and click Freeze Panes.
A B C D E F G H
1 Name Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
2 Priya 8 8 7 8 6 0 0
3 Marcus 6 6 6 6 6 4 0
4 Lena 8 9 8 8 8 0 0
5 Omar 0 5 5 5 5 8 4
6 Grace 7 7 7 7 7 0 0
7 Tom 4 4 0 4 4 6 6
With B2 selected, Freeze Panes keeps row 1 (the days) and column A (the names) in view. Only the hours scroll.
Scroll in both directions
Scroll down and to the right. The days stay at the top and the names stay at the left, so every number still has its labels.

The cell you select decides what freezes:

To keep this in view	Select	Then choose
Row 1	Any cell	Freeze Top Row
Column A	Any cell	Freeze First Column
Rows 1 to 3	A4, or the whole of row 4	Freeze Panes
Columns A and B	C1, or the whole of column C	Freeze Panes
Row 1 and column A	B2	Freeze Panes
Rows 1 to 3 and columns A and B	C4	Freeze Panes

Each sheet has its own frozen panes, and Excel saves them with the workbook.

Unfreeze panes

Once a sheet has frozen panes, the first choice in the menu changes to Unfreeze Panes. Click it to remove any kind of freeze: top row, first column or panes.

On a sheet with frozen panes, the first menu item reads Unfreeze Panes.

To move a freeze to a different cell, unfreeze first, select the new cell and freeze again.

Why doesn't anything look different?

Freezing doesn't move anything, so near the top of a sheet it can look as if nothing happened:

You haven't scrolled yet. The only sign of a freeze is a thin line under the frozen rows or to the right of the frozen columns. Scroll down or right to see the effect.
You selected a cell in row 1 or column A. Freeze Panes at B1 freezes column A only, with no rows. At A2 it freezes row 1 only. Pick the cell below and to the right of what you want to keep.
The sheet was scrolled when you froze it. Excel freezes what's in the window. If row 15 was at the top, rows 1 to 14 are now out of reach above the frozen part, and you can't scroll back to them. Unfreeze, press Ctrl+Home, and freeze again.
The frozen part fills the window. Freeze at row 30 on a laptop screen and there's no room left to scroll, so the sheet seems stuck. Unfreeze and choose a cell nearer the top.

Freeze Panes, Split or Print Titles?

Three features sound alike but do different jobs:

Feature	Where	What it does
Freeze Panes	View then Window then Freeze Panes	Keeps rows at the top and columns at the left on screen while the rest scrolls
Split	View then Window then Split	Divides the window into two or four panes that each scroll on their own, so you can look at row 5 and row 500 together
Print Titles	Page Layout then Page Setup then Print Titles	Repeats rows (or columns) on every printed page

A sheet is either split or frozen, never both. Freeze Panes doesn't affect printing at all: to put the headings at the top of every printed page, set Rows to repeat at top in Print Titles.

Real-world scenarios

Work

A report with a title above the headings

A monthly report has a title in row 1, a date in row 2 and the headings in row 3. Freeze Top Row would keep only the title. Instead, click A4 and choose Freeze Panes.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Q3 order report
2	Updated 2026-10-01
3	Order	Date	Customer	Rep	Amount
4	2,041	2026-07-02	Bright Cafe	Priya	320
5	2,042	2026-07-05	Oak Books	Marcus	145
6	2,043	2026-07-09	Corner Deli	Priya	610
7	2,044	2026-07-14	Blue Gym	Lena	90
8	2,045	2026-07-20	Sun Bakery	Marcus	275
9	2,046	2026-07-28	Lake Clinic	Lena	410
10	2,047	2026-08-03	Pine Studio	Priya	180

With A4 selected, Freeze Panes keeps rows 1 to 3 (amber): the title, the date and the headings.

Rows 1 to 3 stay on screen while the orders scroll, so anyone reading the report always sees what it is and which column is which.

School

A grade book with ID and name

A teacher's grade book has the student ID in column A and the name in column B, with one column per assignment. To keep both on screen while scrolling right, and the assignment names while scrolling down, click C2 and choose Freeze Panes.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	ID	Student	Quiz 1	Quiz 2	Essay	Lab	Midterm	Project
2	S-01	Ana	18	16	42	27	88	90
3	S-02	Ben	15	17	38	25	74	82
4	S-03	Chloe	20	19	47	29	95	93
5	S-04	Daniel	12	14	35	22	68	75
6	S-05	Emma	17	18	44	28	91	86
7	S-06	Felix	16	13	40	24	79	88

Freezing at C2 keeps row 1 and columns A and B (amber) in view. The scores scroll in both directions.

Now the Project column, far to the right in a full-year grade book, still lines up with Ana's or Daniel's name.

Personal

A budget with months across

A household budget lists categories down column A and adds a column every month. By summer, the categories are off screen when you look at July. Scroll all the way left and choose Freeze First Column.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Category	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
2	Rent	900	900	900	900	900	900	900
3	Groceries	340	365	350	372	338	360	381
4	Transport	120	115	130	95	120	125	110
5	Phone	45	45	45	45	45	45	45
6	Fun	150	90	175	140	160	210	185
7	Savings	200	200	250	200	200	150	200

With column A (amber) frozen, Rent, Groceries and the other categories stay visible next to every month.

The sheet has only seven rows, so there's no need to freeze row 1 as well. If you add more categories later, unfreeze and freeze at B2 instead.

Common mistakes

Freezing at the wrong cell. Select D10 and you freeze nine rows and three columns. Unfreeze, select the cell just below and right of the area you want, and freeze again.
Freezing while scrolled down. Rows above the window at the moment you freeze can't be reached until you unfreeze. Press Ctrl+Home before freezing.
Trying to combine Freeze Top Row and Freeze First Column. The second one replaces the first. Use Freeze Panes at B2.
Freeze Panes is grayed out. You're probably editing a cell (press Enter or Esc first) or in Page Layout view (switch to View then Workbook Views then Normal).
Expecting frozen rows to print on every page. Freezing is for the screen only. Use Print Titles for paper.

Practice

Freeze, check and unfreeze

Type the hours table from this page (names in column A, Mon to Sun in B1:H1), then copy rows 2 to 7 and paste them below a few times so the list is longer than your screen. Then:

Choose Freeze Top Row and scroll down. Check that the days stay in view.
Choose Freeze First Column, scroll right, and notice that row 1 is no longer frozen.
Unfreeze, press Ctrl+Home, select B2 and choose Freeze Panes. Scroll down and right.
Unfreeze, scroll down so that row 10 is at the top, select B12 and freeze. Try to scroll back to row 1, then unfreeze to fix it.
Open Page Layout then Page Setup then Print Titles and set row 1 to repeat at the top. Check page 2 in the print preview (Ctrl+P).

What you'll learn

Before you start

Where to find it

Freeze the top row

Scroll to the top

Freeze the top row

Scroll down to check

Freeze the first column

Freeze rows and columns at the same time

Select the cell below and to the right

Freeze the panes

Scroll in both directions

Unfreeze panes

Why doesn't anything look different?

Freeze Panes, Split or Print Titles?

Real-world scenarios

A report with a title above the headings

A grade book with ID and name

A budget with months across

Common mistakes

Practice

Freeze, check and unfreeze

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