Excel tip: Splitting windows

Sorry to have missed posting the last couple of weeks...been out of the office a bit...

My old boss, Peter Hamon, loved splitting windows in Excel.  I never understood the value, being a "freeze pane" kinda girl myself.

This week, I discovered the difference, and the true joy that is splitting windows in Excel.

If you use "freeze panes", it'll freeze one section of the spreadsheet (thus the name!).
This is handy if you need to keep column or row labels in place as you move around.

But what if you want to scroll around in ALL the sections of the sheet?   "Freeze panes" won't do that for you....but splitting windows will!

Here's how to do it:

1.  In your spreadsheet, go to the row where you want to split the spreadsheet.

2.  Move to the left-most cell in the row if you only want the sheet to split into two parts (top and bottom).  Move to another cell in the row if you want to split into four parts(top,bottom, left, and right). 
3.  From the "Window" menu, choose "Split"
4.  If you want to get rid of the split, from the "Window" menu, choose "Remove Split"

....and now you too can experience the "split window" joy!

Comments

[Jon]

Good tip, I personally do this all the time. I think it is a matter of what you are use to.

[Excel Courses]

Yeah this is a good idea, i will have to try it out for myself though to see its true potential, thanks!

[Karen]

Thanks, this is a good idea.