This blog was authored by Y. Karp.
Excel 2003 is limited to 65,536 rows and 256 columns. That might sound like a lot, but there are often situations where a spreadsheet you have designed can go right up to the limit. In fact, Microsoft increased these limits in Excel 2007 (1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns).
For most of us, 65,536 rows and 256 columns may be more than enough. However, it is very common that your spreadsheet will extend beyond your screen real-estate, requiring you to scroll along or down the worksheet to view the data that initially appears off the page. When you do this, you can no longer see column or row headings, which can really make it difficult to know what you are looking at.
The answer: Freeze, Split and Hide (sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?)
Freeze: Freezing an area of the worksheet allows you to view data on one part of the worksheet while scrolling through the rest of the worksheet. For example, if the top of your spreadsheet contains column headings, freeze Row 1 so that as you scroll down the sheet, Row 1 remains visible. You can do the same for row headings by freezing columns. You can freeze one row or column or multiple rows or columns. For instance, you can make sure that as you scroll through your worksheet, columns A:C always remains visible. You can also freeze both a row and a column so that they always show as you scroll up and down or left and right.
Split: Splitting a worksheet allows you to to work on one part of the spreadsheet whilst still viewing a second part of the spreadsheet. Let’s say that you want to view columns AX:AZ while working on columns CP:CS: You can split the worksheet into two so that separate scroll bars appear below the two parts, as if they are in separate windows. The term “split” is not entirely accurate because you don’t create two spreadsheets from one. You only create a duplicate view. Think of it like a split-screen on your television, showing opposite ends of the same football field. As players on both screens run towards the center, the two sides of the screen end up showing the same picture because it is the same football field. So if you split the spreadsheet, you can still scroll along the entire length and breadth of the sheet on either of the split areas. Any changes made in one will immediately effect changes made in the other because they are really the same spreadsheet.
Hide: You can also hide columns to make them sort of invisible, although they are really still there. You will know that the row or column is hidden because the row numbers or the column headers will no longer be sequential, e.g.: 1,2,5,6,7. You can unhide the rows or columns at will to display them. This is particularly useful if you have rows or columns that are there for calculation or functions, but do not add value to the data itself. Hiding rows and columns can reduce the amount of screen space the spreadsheet uses, making it easier to work with.
So you have a choice of how to solve the problem of too much data and too little screen real-estate by choosing any or all of these solutions.
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Interesting question! I had a “play-around” with this in Excel 2003 thinking that there would be no problem with this, but it seems to play a few tricks on your spreadsheet if you attempt to do so. Mainly, if you have frozen your spreadsheet at a certain juncture and then attempt to split the screen, it removes the “freeze” and replaces it with a “split” as opposed to harbouring both these functions. I’m not sure if Excel 2007 manages this better but I have to say I was a bit disappointed to find it does not work in 2003. I might have to “play around” with it a bit more!