To freeze the top row in Excel, click the View tab, choose Freeze Panes, and select Freeze Top Row — the first visible row then stays put while the rest of the sheet scrolls.
Freezing a row keeps your header labels on screen as you move down a long list, which makes data far easier to read and reduces mistakes. The steps below apply to Microsoft 365, Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and Excel for the web, with a small note for Mac users where the menus differ slightly.
Freeze the top row
- Open your worksheet and make sure you are in Normal view (View tab > Normal).
- Click the View tab on the ribbon.
- Click Freeze Panes.
- Choose Freeze Top Row.
A thin line appears below row 1. Scroll down and the header row stays in place. You do not need to select the row first — this option always locks whichever row is currently at the top of the visible area. One thing to watch: Freeze Top Row locks the top row that is visible on screen, not necessarily worksheet row 1. Scroll back up so row 1 is showing before you apply it, or Excel may freeze whatever row happens to be at the top of the window.
Freeze more than one row
Freeze Top Row locks only a single row. To keep two or more rows visible — for example, a title in row 1 and column headers in row 2 — you select a cell or row before freezing:
- Click the row number just below the last row you want to keep visible. To freeze rows 1 and 2, click the heading for row 3.
- Go to View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
- Everything above the selected row is now locked.
The freeze options compared
| Option | What it locks | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze Top Row | Row 1 only | A single header row above your data |
| Freeze First Column | Column A only | Row labels you want visible while scrolling right |
| Freeze Panes | All rows above and columns left of the selected cell | Multiple header rows, or rows and a column together |
Freeze a row and a column together
To lock both a header row and a label column at once, click the cell that sits just below the rows and just to the right of the columns you want frozen. For example, select cell B2 to freeze row 1 and column A, then choose View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes. Both the top row and the left column will stay visible as you scroll in any direction.
Unfreeze rows
To remove the freeze, return to View > Freeze Panes and choose Unfreeze Panes. This clears all frozen rows and columns in one step; you do not need to select anything first. If you only ever froze the top row, the same menu still works.
Freezing on a Mac
In Excel for Mac the process is the same — the Freeze Panes button lives on the View tab — although the ribbon layout can look a little different depending on your window size. On most recent versions you will find Freeze Top Row, Freeze First Column, and Freeze Panes in the same drop-down. If you want to capture the frozen layout to share with a colleague, our guide on taking a screenshot on a Mac covers the shortcuts.
Freezing rows in Google Sheets
If you also work in Google Sheets, the equivalent is View > Freeze, where you can pick “1 row,” “2 rows,” or “Up to current row.” You can also drag the thick gray line at the edge of the header to set the frozen area by hand, and the choice syncs across your devices. The concept is identical to Excel; only the menu name changes.
Freeze versus split panes
Freezing is not the only way to keep two parts of a sheet visible. The View > Split command divides the window into independently scrollable panes, which is useful when you want to compare row 5 with row 500 at the same time. The difference is that a split can be scrolled in every pane, whereas a frozen row is fixed. Use freeze for headers you always want on screen, and split for comparing distant sections of the same sheet.
Freeze versus print titles
Frozen panes only affect the screen. If you need the header to repeat at the top of every printed page, use Page Layout > Print Titles and set “Rows to repeat at top” instead — freezing alone will not do this. The two features are complementary: freeze for reading on screen, print titles for paper and PDF. It is common to set both on the same report so it reads cleanly whether viewed on a monitor or printed.
Getting your sheet ready
Freezing works best on a clean, well-labeled sheet. Before you lock the header, tidy the layout — for instance, use merged cells for a single centered title above the frozen header so the report has a clear banner. If your machine has been slow while working with a large workbook, it can help to close other apps; and if the screen itself is grubby enough to make fine gridlines hard to read, our guide on cleaning a laptop screen is a quick fix. With the header locked and the sheet tidy, scrolling through hundreds of rows becomes far less error-prone.
