To freeze the top row in Excel on Windows: select View, select Freeze Panes, then select Freeze Top Row. In Excel for Mac, Freeze Top Row is its own button on the View tab. To freeze more than one row, select the row just below the last one you want frozen, then choose View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes. The frozen rows stay on screen while the rest of the worksheet scrolls.
Freezing pins chosen rows and columns in place so your header labels stay in view no matter how far down or across you scroll. This page covers the Windows and Mac paths for the top row, several rows, columns, rows and columns together, and unfreezing, plus the grayed-out cases and how freezing differs from splitting the window and from repeating rows on a printed page.
How do I freeze the top row?
On Windows, Microsoft’s instructions run in two steps:
- Press Enter or Esc so you are no longer editing a cell.
- Select View, select Freeze Panes, then select Freeze Top Row.
In Excel for Mac the command is one click: on the View tab, select Freeze Top Row. The Mac page adds a visual check: look for the slightly darker border that appears under row 1. That heavier line marks the frozen row.
The same commands sit in different places on the two platforms. Windows tucks the freeze commands into the Freeze Panes menu on the View tab, while Excel for Mac lays them out as separate View tab buttons. Microsoft documents the two paths on separate pages, so when a set of instructions does not match your ribbon, check which platform it was written for.
How do I freeze multiple rows?
Select the row just below the last one you want frozen, then choose Freeze Panes. To freeze the first two rows, select row 3, then View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes. Selecting cell A3 does the same job, because no columns sit to the left of column A, so only the rows freeze.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Headcount plan | |||
| 2 | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 3 | Support | 14 | 16 | 18 |
| 4 | Engineering | 31 | 33 | 36 |
Microsoft’s Mac page sets one limit: “You can freeze as many as you want, as long as you always start with the top row and the first column.” A freeze always grows from the top left corner of the sheet. There is no way to pin a band of rows in the middle of a worksheet on its own; for that job, split the window instead (covered below).
How do I freeze columns?
The sideways version of the same rule: select the column to the right of the last column you want frozen, then Freeze Panes. Microsoft’s worked example freezes the first two columns: select the third column, then View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
For just the first column, Excel for Mac has a dedicated Freeze First Column button on the View tab, marked the same way, with a slightly darker line to the right of column A. On Windows, selecting the second column and choosing View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes gets the same result.
How do I freeze rows and columns at the same time?
Both are driven by the cell you select before the command. Per Microsoft’s page: “Freeze Panes freezes the rows above and the columns left of the selected cell.” So pick the cell that sits just under the rows you want to keep and just right of the columns you want to keep, then select View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
Two worked selections from Microsoft’s pages:
- Cell B2 freezes the top row and the first column, so the headers and the row labels both stay in view.
- Cell D5 freezes the top four rows and the leftmost three columns, everything above row 5 and left of column D.
When rows and columns are both frozen, a slightly thicker border marks the freeze edges, under the last frozen row and beside the last frozen column. With D5 selected, that means under row 4 and beside column C.
How do I unfreeze rows or columns?
On the View tab, select Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. In Excel for Mac, choose Unfreeze Panes on the View tab. To move the freeze line, unfreeze, make a new selection, and choose Freeze Panes again.
Does freezing change the data or the printout?
A freeze is a view setting: it controls which part of the worksheet stays visible while you scroll to another part, and nothing else. The same values, formulas, and formatting sit in the same cells; the freeze only decides what stays on screen.
Freezing also does not touch printing. A frozen row 1 stays at the top of your screen, not at the top of every printed page. Repeating headings on paper is a separate feature, print titles: on the Page Layout tab, select Print Titles, then enter the rows in the Rows to repeat at top box, $1:$1 for row 1.
Freeze Panes or Split?
The View tab offers two ways to hold part of a sheet steady, and they behave differently. Freezing pins rows and columns so they never leave the screen. Splitting divides the worksheet into panes that scroll on their own, so the upper pane can hold the top rows steady while you move through the lower pane, or two panes can show far-apart regions of the same sheet at once.
To split, select the row below where the divide should go, the column to the right of it, or a cell below and to the right of it for both, then select View > Window > Split. Selecting Split again removes it.
The way to choose: a header row that must stay put is a freeze; reading row 180 against the top ten rows of the same sheet is a split.
Why is Freeze Panes grayed out?
A few things to check, each with its own fix:
- On a Mac, wrong view. Excel for Mac’s page carries the fix directly: if the Freeze buttons are grayed out, select Normal on the View tab.
- On Windows, finish the cell edit first. Microsoft’s Freeze Top Row steps begin with pressing Enter or Esc to be sure you are done editing a cell, so commit the edit before you look for the command.
- No View tab at all. Microsoft’s note points at Excel Starter, which does not support every feature.
The short version
- Top row: on Windows, View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row; Excel for Mac has a Freeze Top Row button right on the View tab.
- Several rows: select the row just below the last one you want frozen, then Freeze Panes. First two rows means selecting row 3.
- Columns: select the column to the right of the last one you want frozen. First two columns means selecting the third.
- Both at once: select the cell below and to the right of the block you want to keep; the freeze covers the rows above and the columns left of it. B2 pins row 1 and column A.
- Undo: View > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes (on a Mac, Unfreeze Panes on the View tab).
- Not the same as hiding: freezing keeps rows or columns on screen while you scroll the rest; to take them off the screen entirely instead, hide columns or rows.
- Grayed out: press Enter or Esc to finish the cell edit; on a Mac, switch to Normal view. Headers on every printed page are Print Titles, not freezing. And when the question is which rows changed under the frozen header, compare the two files cell by cell instead of scrolling for it.
