Google Sheets: How to freeze and unfreeze rows and columns
Spreadsheets are the ultimate business tool fororganizing and analyzing data. But all the data analysis in the world won’t help you if you don’t understand what you’re working with, or worse, you can’t get your boss to understand it. One problem with large data sets in spreadsheets is that as soon as you scroll down, you can’t see your column headers, and it becomes easy to lose track of what’s in which column.
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Freezing and unfreezing in Google Sheets
The process for freezing a row or column is simple but differs slightly depending on your platform. And like most thing inGoogle Workspace, there’s more than one way to complete a task. It doesn’t matter if you use abudget Chromebook, PC, Android, or Apple device. Start by logging in to your Google account and opening a spreadsheet.
How to freeze a row in Google Sheets on your desktop browser
How to freeze a row in Google Sheets on your Android phone or tablet
Tap and hold the row header for row 1 on the left side of the spreadsheet. Alternatively, highlight the row by tapping the row header, then touch the header again.
How to freeze a row in Google Sheets on your iPhone or iPad
Congratulations! You have successfully frozen your first row. No matter which platform you use, you’ll see a gray line separating the frozen cells from the others. When you scroll the sheet, the first row remains fixed at the top of the screen. This same process can also be applied to columns so that when you scroll to the left, the first column is always fixed.
Freezing multiple rows and columns in Google Sheets
When working with large data sets, you might need to freeze more than one row or column of data. If you use a smartphone or tablet, you’re able to select more than one row or column and follow the procedure outlined above, but that can be a pain on older phones. There’s a better way.
How to freeze multiple rows and columns in Google Sheets app for Android and iOS
If you’re following along using the browser version of Google Sheets, you may have noticed other options in the Freeze menu. In addition to being able to freeze one row, you can freeze two rows or up to whichever row your currently selected cell is in. But you don’t have to use the menu. There’s an easier way.
How to freeze multiple rows and columns in Google Sheets on your web browser
When you freeze a row or column, Sheets puts a thick gray border between the rows or columns to indicate which cells are frozen. Those borders are draggable. If you don’t have any rows or columns frozen, you’ll find them in the upper-left corner of the spreadsheet just above row 1 and left of column A.
Minding the details
That’s the basics of freezing rows and columns in Google Sheets. The only caveat is that your frozen rows and columns must be adjacent to the top and right edges, respectively. You can’t freeze a row or column that’s in the middle of your sheet, but you can improve accessibility bygrouping rows and columnsanywhere in the sheet. And if you need to up your game even more, take advantage ofour favorite Google Sheets add-ons.
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