How to Freeze a Row in Google Sheets

Excel's online replacement - Google Sheets, is one of the best-developed spreadsheets, belonging to the group Google Workspace.

The online spreadsheet editor has many useful features, such as assigning in Google Sheets, indenting in Google Sheets, or removing gridlines in Google Sheets.

Working with a spreadsheet that contains a lot of data, you might find yourself scrolling up and down, or left to right, which can often cause you to get defocused.

Luckily, there's a simple solution to avoid this problem - freezing a row in Google Sheets.

Once doing so, you'll be able to keep the needed row or column visible, all while moving through the rest of your data contained in your spreadsheet.

In this article, we'll cover several methods to freeze a row in Google Sheets. Keep reading!

What does it mean to freeze a row in Google Sheets?

Freezing a row in Google spreadsheets means that a certain row will be pinned, and you'll be able to see the data it contains while moving through the rest of the spreadsheet.

This can come in handy, especially if we consider that a single Google Sheets document can contain up to 40,000 rows.

This feature is most helpful for numerous users when they need to compare data in rows that are not next to one another or as a reminder of the crucial data needed while entering other information.

Before we start the step-by-step process, please note:

• A row cannot be frozen in the middle of the spreadsheet. It has to be right next to the first row/column.

• You cannot freeze both rows and columns at the same time.

How to freeze a row in Google Sheets

There are two ways to freeze a row in Google Sheets:

• Using the drag-and-drop shortcut;
• Using the Freeze feature from the View menu.

Freezing a row and a column using drag-and-drop

1. In the upper-left corner of the spreadsheet, you can see vertical and horizontal gray panes.
2. By hovering your mouse over the gray panes, your cursor will turn into a hand icon.

3. Click and drag each pane either vertically or horizontally until you have selected the entire row or column you wish to freeze.

4. The gray pane will create a border around the frozen row or column.

Note: When using the drag-and-drop shortcut on Google Sheets, you'll be able to freeze multiple rows or columns. The selected rows/columns must be next to each other, however.

Freezing a row and a column by using the Freeze feature from the View menu

1. From the top menu, click on 'View'.

2. From the drop-down menu, click on 'Freeze'.

3. Next, if you want to freeze the first row, click on '1 Row'; if you want to freeze the first column, click on '1 Column'.

4. Again, after selecting the number of rows you wish to freeze, the gray panes will create a border around the frozen rows or columns.

How to unfreeze rows and columns in Google Sheets

To unfreeze rows in Google Sheets, depending on which method you used to freeze them in the first place, you'll need to either drag and drop the panes back to normal or use the Freeze feature from the View menu.

Unfreezing with the drag-and-drop shortcut

1. Hover your mouse over the gray panel next to the frozen column or row, and drag it back to the left end of the spreadsheet.

Unfreezing via the View menu

1. Click on the 'View' menu from the top bar.

2. Click on 'Freeze', and from the drop-down menu, click on 'No Row'.

3. Open 'View' again, and click on 'Freeze'. Under 'Columns', click on 'No Columns' to unfreeze it.

How to freeze rows and columns from mobile

1. On the spreadsheet homepage, tap and hold on the row or column you wish to freeze.

2. A menu with several options will appear; tap on 'Freeze'.

3. After freezing the row, you'll be able to see the gray panes, which show you which rows or columns have been frozen.

Conclusion

Google Spreadsheets offers numerous features that can make your everyday life while working with data much easier.

In this article, we covered two different methods of freezing and unfreezing rows and columns using the Desktop version, as well as a single method of freezing rows and columns from the mobile version.