How to freeze Rows & columns at the same time

[Charlie_Nairn]

I have Excel 365 for Mac. I need to freeze my Column A and Rows 1-3 at the same time. Excel Help says I can do this via View > Freeze Panes but in View I see no such option, only Unfreeze Panes, Freeze Top Row and Freeze First Column.

(It used to be easy in Excel fro Mac 2016!)

THANKS EVERYBODY - and Happy New Year despite everything.

CN

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Charlie_Nairn 

Apparently, Freeze Panes is already active.

So first select Unfreeze Panes from the Freeze Panes dropdown.

Then select cell B4, and select Freeze Panes from the Freeze Panes dropdown.

[#3]

Thanks Hans @Hans Vogelaar 

Your faultless advice worked perfectly.

Excel help is surprisingly unclear and suggests freezing column A first - which of course freezes that column and then you can't freeze rows.

But you've explained how to freeze Excel Rows & Columns at the same time 101% clearly & accurately.

So ... THANK YOU again.

cn

[#4]

It works. Thanks for your great advice.

It's so simple but can be frustrating if you don't know how!

@Hans Vogelaar 

[#5]

Thank you, this works perfectly!

[#6]

I had the same problem but I still can get only half of the solution to work. Clearly I am missing the point. Sometimes I get the top row to freeze but not the left most column to freeze. Or vice a versa. Help. I used to be able to freeze both with the beta version of excel years ago but as the product evolved I could no longer accomplish the task of getting both the top row and left column freeze at the same time. Help!

[#7]

Hans Vogelaar's EXCELLENT advice of

‎Jan 18 2021 03:44 AM

continues to work perfectly for me but I'm on Excel for Mac 16.69.1
He said:-

@Charlie_Nairn 

Apparently, Freeze Panes is already active.

So first select Unfreeze Panes from the Freeze Panes dropdown.

Then select cell B4, and select Freeze Panes from the Freeze Panes dropdown.

[#8]

@Fred_Abrams 

If the first item in the Freeze Panes drop down is Unfreeze Panes, select that.

Select the cell below the last row that you want to keep visible, and to the right of the last column that you want to keep visible.

So for example, if you want to freeze the first row and first column, select cell B2.

And if you want to freeze the first two rows and the first three columns, select cell D3.

Then select Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.

[#9]

Worked, thanks much. For some reason it worked for me in cell B2, guess it is a formatting thing.

[#10]

@Hans Vogelaar thanks Hans. I didn't think about the need to unfreeze everything before applying the custom freezing option. Years later, just wanted to let everyone know that this fix is still valid. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why Freeze Panes was not showing up as an option for me. Unfreezing and then placing the cursor in the first active cell outside the range I wanted frozen worked perfectly.

[#11]

@Jay_Fulton 

Good to hear that!

[#12]

Wonderful explanation!! Thank you so much!

[#13]

Wow! I finally got it. If I only had a brain!
Thank you very much!
Fred

[#14]

@Hans Vogelaar Hello, I only have these options available: 

[#15]

@FranCorona 

Up to now, this discussion was about the desktop version of Excel.

My guess is that your screenshot is from the online (browser) version of Excel.

The wording of the options is different from the desktop version, and will change depending on the active cell.

"Freeze at selection" will freeze the rows above the active cell and the columns to the left of the active cell.

"Top Row" will freeze row 1.

"Up to row 3" means that the active cell is in row 4; the rows above it will be frozen.

If the active cell is in row 6, the item will read "Up to row 5".

"First column" will freeze column A.

"Up to column A" means that the active cell is in column B; the column to the left will be frozen.

If the active cell is in column D, it would read "Up to column C".

[#16]

@Hans Vogelaar
You are correct, I'm sorry, I should have said. I am using the browser version. So, basically the browser version does not have that option is what you are saying? Thanks for the quick response!

[#17]

@FranCorona 

You can do exactly the same things in the browser version as in the desktop versiom, but the items are worded differently.

[#18]

@Hans Vogelaar So...I unfreeze panes and those are still the only options that I get...and none of them will freeze both the rows and columns at the same time...am I just not fully awake yet? lol

[#19]

@FranCorona 

Let's say you want to freeze the top 2 rows and the first 3 columns (A to C).

Select the cell below row 2 and to the right of column C, that is cell D3.

Then select View > Freeze Panes > Freeze at selection.

[#20]

@Hans Vogelaar
I did that but it only freezes the top 2 rows...