Working with wide datasets in Microsoft Excel often means scrolling far to the right, which causes you to lose sight of the identifying information at the beginning of the row. Excel provides a convenient “Freeze First Column” button specifically to solve this problem.
However, what happens if your identifying information is split across multiple columns? If Column A contains an Employee ID and Column B contains their Full Name, freezing only the first column means the name disappears when you scroll sideways, leaving you looking at a meaningless ID number.
The “Freeze First Column” button is useless here, and there is no “Freeze First Two Columns” button available on the ribbon. Instead, you must use a specific trick involving cell selection to lock multiple columns simultaneously. This guide explains how to freeze exactly two (or more) columns in Excel.
How to Freeze Multiple Columns
The secret to freezing multiple columns in Excel lies in where you place your active cell cursor before you click the Freeze Panes button. Excel locks everything to the left of your selected cell.
- Open your spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.
- Look at the columns you want to freeze. In this scenario, we want to freeze Column A and Column B.
- Click once on cell C1 (the very first cell in the column immediately to the right of the area you want to freeze).
- With cell C1 highlighted, look at the ribbon at the top of the Excel window and click the View tab.
- In the “Window” group, click the Freeze Panes button with the small dropdown arrow.
- From the drop-down menu, click the first option, which is simply titled Freeze Panes.
A thin, solid grey line will instantly appear between Column B and Column C. This line indicates the freeze boundary.
Now, scroll to the right. You will see that Column A and Column B remain locked in place on the left side of your screen, while Column C and beyond scroll smoothly underneath them. This trick works for any number of columns: to freeze the first four columns, simply click on cell E1 before clicking Freeze Panes.
How to Freeze Columns and Rows Simultaneously
You can use this exact same cell-selection logic to freeze multiple columns and your top header row at the exact same time, creating an always-visible crosshair for your data.
If you want to freeze the top row (Row 1) and the first two columns (Columns A and B):
- Click on cell C2. (Remember the rule: Excel freezes everything above and everything to the left of the selected cell).
- Go to View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.
Two intersecting grey lines will appear. Now, whether you scroll down or to the right, your headers and identifying columns will remain perfectly visible.
How to Unfreeze Your Columns
If you need to adjust your columns or remove the freeze effect entirely, you can turn it off with two clicks.
- Go back to the View tab.
- Click the Freeze Panes button again.
- The first option in the menu will have changed to Unfreeze Panes. Click it.
The grey lines will disappear, and your spreadsheet will return to normal scrolling behavior.