How to divide a single sheet into multiple windows using Freeze Panes/Split?
In Excel, you can divide a single sheet into multiple windows by Freeze Panes or Split.
Suppose you have a spreadsheet with 2,000 lines, where the heading is in line 1, what should we do so that we can keep the heading on the screen while reading the last line in the spreadsheet? It is impossible to show all 2,000 lines into 1 single screen. Therefore, Excel allows us to divide a single sheet into multiple windows.
The sheets can be divided by using the following two ways:
- Freeze Panes
- Split Window
Both functions can divide the sheet into 2 or 4 windows.
2 Windows
4 Windows
Freeze Panes/ Split
The steps to use the freeze panes and the split function is almost the same. The only difference is to click on the “Freeze Panes” button or he “Split” button at the last step.
To Divide the windows into 4 windows like below. Following is the steps
- Select the top left corner of windows D
- Click “Split” under the View the ribbon.
To Divide the windows into 2 sections like below the steps is very similar to above. However, this time we are selecting the entire row or column.
For example, I want to divide the screen into 4 windows, so that the top windows (Windows A and B) will have 8 rows height and the left windows (A and C) will show from Column A to E
- Select the top left corner of Windows D (In this case it will be cell F5)
2. Click “Split” Or “Freeze Panes”
Freeze Pane Vs Split Windows
So what is the difference between Freeze Pane and Split Windows?
There are different when scrolling windows. In Split Windows, all windows are scroll-able and their display area can also be overlapping across windows. However, in freeze Pane, only some windows are scroll-able and they are never overlapped.
| Freeze Panel (Vertically scroll, up and down) | Split Window (Vertically scroll, up and down) | Freeze Pane (Horizontally scroll, left and right) | Split Window (Horizontally scroll, left and right) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows A (Left Window) scroll together with Window B (right window) | Windows A (Left Window) move together with Window B (right window) | Windows A is frozen when Windows B scroll by iteselt | Windows A and B have their own scroll bar and both can be scrolled frely |
| Windows A is frozen and not scrollable while windows B scroll by iteself. | Windows A and B have their own scroll bar and can be scrolled freely | Windows A scroll vertically together with Windows B | Windows A scroll vertically together with Windows B |
| Windows A and B is frozen and cannot be scrolled vertically. Windows C scroll vertically wth Windows D | Windows A scrolled vertically with Windows B. Windows C scroll vertically wth Windows D | Windows A and C is frozen. Windows B scroll horizontally with Windows D | Windows A scrolled horizontally with Windows C. Windows B scroll horizontal wth Windows D |