Working with a large spreadsheet of data can be a real pain at times, especially when you have to scroll past column or row headings to get to the data you need. You may find that you have to follow one row or column with your eyes as you scroll to make sure you are looking at the correct data. There is a much easier way! Excel provides two options to help with these situations - splitting windows and freezing panes.
What is the difference?
When you split a window in Excel, you end up with two windows that are independent of each other. They scroll independently and each can move through the entire spreadsheet. In this way, you can view two different parts of the spreadsheet on the same screen even though the two may be quite far apart.
Freezing a pane in Excel involves locking columns or rows in place, so that when you scroll through the spreadsheet these columns or rows are always visible on the screen. This is especially helpful when, for example, you have a spreadsheet of customer or employee information with several columns. If you can freeze the column on the left that contains the customer or employee names, then when you need to scroll beyond your screen view, those names stay in place and you can always be sure you are viewing the correct corresponding data.
Splitting Windows
Excel allows you to split the workbook window into two horizontal and/or two vertical panes.
To split the window into a horizontal OR vertical pane:
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For horizontal panes, select the row that is to become the first row in the bottom pane. For vertical panes, select the column that is to become the first column in the right-hand pane. You can select the entire row or column by clicking on the row number or column letter.
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From the Window menu, choose Split.
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When you no longer need the split, from the Window menu, choose Remove Split to return to normal.
Note that as a shortcut, you can double-click on the split line to remove it.
To split the window into horizontal AND vertical panes:
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Select the cell below and to the right of where the panes are to intersect, as shown below.
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From the Window menu, choose Split.
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To restore to normal, from the Window menu, choose Remove Split.
You can also split the workbook window by dragging the Horizontal split box located above the vertical scroll bar, or by dragging the Vertical split box located to the right of the horizontal scroll bar.
To move between panes, click in the appropriate pane or press Shift + F6.
Freezing Panes
You can freeze a pane from a split window, or just freeze rows or columns without splitting the window.
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Select a cell to the right of the column(s) to freeze, or a cell below the row(s) to freeze. You do not have to select the entire column or row.
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From the Window menu, choose Freeze Panes. A solid black line appears the length of the row or column to show where it has been frozen.
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To remove the lock, from the Window menu, choose Unfreeze Panes.
Note that you can freeze panes horizontally AND vertically, by following the same instructions above for splitting horizontally and vertically. Just choose Freeze Panes from the Window menu, instead of Split.