Microsoft Excel has plenty of shortcuts. Those shortcuts help us to do work faster and also save time. In Excel, while scrolling over a huge dataset, sometimes we need to keep some data visible. Freezing is the method of ensuring rows and columns are displayed on the screen at all times, and the Freeze Panes tool helps us to do that in Excel. The keyboard shortcut to freeze panes in Excel will help to save time while working. In this article, we will learn about some shortcuts to Freeze Panes in Excel.
Keyboard Shortcut to Freeze Panes in Excel: 3 Shortcuts
We may all know about the Freeze Panes in Excel with this we can easily freeze or lock the data we want to display all the time even while navigating to another part of the worksheet. It takes only a few clicks to freeze panes but if you are using the keyboard shortcut, you will be able to complete the task within some seconds.
To use the keyboard shortcuts to Freeze Panes in Excel we are going to use the dataset below. The dataset includes the Product Name in column B, the Price in column C, and the product’s percentage of value-added tax in column D (VAT).
1. Shortcut to Freeze Both Rows and Columns in Excel
To use the shortcut to lock rows or columns or both, we just need to select the cell column or rows and then press the keyboard hotkey. But I will explain in a detailed way that will help to understand how those shortcuts work. Let’s demonstrate the steps below.
STEPS:
- Firstly, select the row cell, or column. We are going to select row 9 to lock the above rows.
- To select the row click on row 9 or click on any cell in row 9 and press Shift + Spacebar, to select the whole row.
- After that, press the keyboard hotkey sequentially Alt + W + F. This will appear in the Freeze Panes option.
- Now, press F to Freeze Panes.
- All we need to do is press Alt + W + F + F to freeze the panes. As we are showing how this works that’s why we are seeing this in detail.
- And finally, a gray line will show up directly below the frozen rows.
- Now if we scroll down, the frozen rows will still be visible to us.
Read More: How to Freeze Top Row and First Column in Excel
2. Shortcut to Freeze Top Rows in Excel
When we scroll down our dataset, we lose the headers of the datasets. To make it easy to understand the dataset we need to lock the headers which we put at the top of our dataset. To freeze the top rows only, we can use a keyboard shortcut Alt + W + F + R. Now, let’s see the procedure of how this shortcut key works.
STEPS:
- First, press Alt + W + F. This will take us to the Freeze Panes drop-down menu bar.
- After that, press R to lock the top rows.
- And, now we can view that a gray line appears, which means the headers are now locked.
- If we scroll down the headers will remain in the same place.
Read More: How to Freeze Multiple Panes in Excel
3. Freeze the First Column with the Keyboard Shortcut
Suppose, we need to lock the first column. Our first column contains the product name and while scrolling over our dataset we want to view the product names. So, to freeze the first column there is a keyboard shortcut Alt + W + F + C (sequentially). Now, let’s go through the procedure of how this shortcut performs.
STEPS:
- In the beginning, using the keyboard shortcut Alt + W + F will bring us to the Freeze Panes menu bar.
- Then, to lock the first column, press C. And this will freeze up the first column of our worksheet.
- If we scroll left or right the first column will still be in the same place.
Read More: How to Freeze Rows and Columns at the Same Time in ExcelÂ
Shortcut of Unfreeze Panes in Excel
As we can use the shortcut for freezing panes, we can also unfreeze them with the keyboard shortcut. Assume that our data is locked. As we can see that two gray lines, one just under the frozen rows and the other immediately adjacent to the frozen columns. The shortcut for unfreezing panes is Alt + W + F + F. Now, let’s have a look at how it works.
STEPS:
- Firstly, by pressing Alt + W + F on the keyboard, the Freeze Panes menu bar can be accessed.
- After that, press F to unfreeze the panes.
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Conclusion
The above methods are shortcuts of Freeze Panes in Excel. Hope this will help you! If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback please let us know in the comment section. Have a great day!
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