How to Freeze Rows or Columns in Excel for Mac

Microsoft Excel has the capacity to deal with a large number of data. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s Good because you’ll be able to process tons of information. Bad, because when worksheets get bigger, rows and columns can be challenging to keep track. It’s easy to lose sight of important information whenever you scroll through their spreadsheets. When this happens, you can freeze the rows of your spreadsheet so you can see the areas that you want to see. Below is our step by step guide on how to lock panes in Microsoft Excel for Mac.

Table of Contents

Why you need to freeze panes in Excel for Mac
Why you need to freeze panes in Excel
Freezing Panes in Excel Mac
Unfreeze Panes
Splitting Panes in Excel for Mac
Freeze specific rows
Try it Yourself

Why you need to freeze panes in Excel

Freeze panes lets you lock specific rows and columns so that when you scroll down or right, the selected rows and column remain on the screen. This way, navigating through the entire spreadsheet—no matter how big it is—would be more convenient. No more scrolling back and forth to view important data.

Notice that there’s a thin, grey line after the columns and rows that are frozen. To do this, open Excel on your Mac. Next, choose a Spreadsheet that you would like to work with. Locate your Tool Bar and choose ‘View’ from the Menu bar. And click on ‘Freeze Panes’.

Click on Freeze Panes icon.

A dropdown of the available freeze selections will show:

Freeze Panes
Freeze Top Row
Freeze First Column

Let’s talk about each one by one.

Freezing Panes in Excel Mac

Freeze Panes gives users the option to freeze specific columns or specific rows only. To do these, follow the method below:

Freeze First Column

The first column is locked in place during Spreadsheet navigation.

Freeze Top Row

The first row is locked in place during Spreadsheet navigation.

Freeze specific columns

This lets you highlight the columns that you want to freeze.
Click on the Freeze Panes icon and select Freeze Panes from the menu.
Now, all the specific columns are locked and stay in place as you navigate your Spreadsheet.
A grey line separates locked columns from the unlocked ones.
For instance, one would like to lock A to C of their Spreadsheet. Simply highlight these columns.
Click on the Freeze Panes icon and select Freeze Panes from the menu.
Notice that columns A to C are now locked and a grey line separates these columns from the rest of the columns in your Spreadsheet.

Freeze specific rows

Choose the cell below the row that you want to freeze. Click it.
Click on the Freeze Panes icon and select Freeze Panes from the menu.
Now, all the rows above are locked and stay in place even when scrolling. A grey line separates locked rows from the unlocked ones.
For instance, one would like to lock A1 to A6 of their Spreadsheet. Simply choose A7, then click.
Click on the Freeze Panes icon and select Freeze Panes from the menu.
Notice that A1 to A6 are now locked and a grey line separates these rows from the rest of the rows in your Spreadsheet.

Users also have the option to lock in view the first column or the first row of the spreadsheet.

To do such, follow these simple steps:

Unfreeze Panes

Arranging your Excel spreadsheet to its default setting is easy. To unlock the panes that were once grouped together, follow these steps:

- Locate your Tool Bar and choose Layout Menu.
- Drag down the menu and click Unfreeze panes.
That’s it!

Now, there’s another way on how to do this. It’s by using the ‘Split Option’ to freeze and separate your rows into different worksheets. This is more helpful than freezing rows if you have lots of columns on the left. Or you have several rows at the top that you want to see and freezing all of them doesn’t work.

Here’s how it looks and works.

Splitting Panes in Excel for Mac

Split Panes lets you split your spreadsheet into 2 or 4 areas, keeping two areas in place while the other two moveable.

In this case, working with Excel will be more systematic and organized which equates to time and energy saved. One will be able to browse through important numbers while keeping other significant digits viewable.

To split panes, simply follow the steps below:

First, open Excel for Mac.

Next, choose a Spreadsheet that you would like to work with.

Choose the column to the right and the row below of the table you want to split.

Locate your Tool Bar and choose ‘View’.

Choose the Split Panes icon.

For instance, you would like to split row 15.

Select row 16 and column 16.

Click on the Split icon and you’ll see divisions on your Excel worksheet, making it easier to work.

Try it yourself

Ready to Excel in Excel?
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