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This is a follow-up to SCA's post of 10/21/04. Like SCA, I have a freeze pane
problem in shared Excel 200 files that have autofilter enabled. Here's the
problem:
I have a habit of freezing the top two rows in all of the worksheets in a
shared workbook so that column headings in row 1 and filters in row 2 are
always
visible when I scroll down. In shared files only, the freeze frame will have
mysteriously jumped down to another row, for example row 100, when I first
open a file. In other words, when I first open the worksheet, I might see
rows 1 to 30 on my screen, but I can't scroll down because the freeze frame
is down at row 100. This can happen at odd times on all worksheets in a
workbook, or just some of the worksheets in a workbook. So unfortunately, I
often end up having to reset the freeze pane at row 2 again for all or some
of the worksheets.
Since there are only two of us in the office sharing these workbooks, I'm
confident that neither of us are changing the placement of the
frozen panes. Perhaps the fact that we are both filtering columns and saving
the shared workbooks is causing Excel to reset the freeze pane inadvertantly.
If someone could figure out this problem it would be very helpful to me.
Shared workbooks are a powerful tool, but this problem really limits my
ability to use shared workbooks more broadly in my office.
problem in shared Excel 200 files that have autofilter enabled. Here's the
problem:
I have a habit of freezing the top two rows in all of the worksheets in a
shared workbook so that column headings in row 1 and filters in row 2 are
always
visible when I scroll down. In shared files only, the freeze frame will have
mysteriously jumped down to another row, for example row 100, when I first
open a file. In other words, when I first open the worksheet, I might see
rows 1 to 30 on my screen, but I can't scroll down because the freeze frame
is down at row 100. This can happen at odd times on all worksheets in a
workbook, or just some of the worksheets in a workbook. So unfortunately, I
often end up having to reset the freeze pane at row 2 again for all or some
of the worksheets.
Since there are only two of us in the office sharing these workbooks, I'm
confident that neither of us are changing the placement of the
frozen panes. Perhaps the fact that we are both filtering columns and saving
the shared workbooks is causing Excel to reset the freeze pane inadvertantly.
If someone could figure out this problem it would be very helpful to me.
Shared workbooks are a powerful tool, but this problem really limits my
ability to use shared workbooks more broadly in my office.
Excel freeze panes example - when the heading rows disappear off the top of. Lot more columns and rows, the problem would get considerably more complex,. Note that Excel delineates the frozen row by including a solid line on the bottom border of the row. If you want to freeze multiple columns of data in your spreadsheet, follow the instructions under How to Freeze Panes in Excel, below.
If Cindy freezes panes in a worksheet and then saves the workbook, the next time she opens that workbook the previously frozen panes no longer appear. Each time she opens the workbook, she needs to reset the panes. Cindy doesn't think it used to be this way in older versions of Excel and wonders if there is some setting she needs to make or wonders, perhaps, if Excel has changed how it handles panes. She wants to save the pane settings with the workbook so they persist from one usage to another.
The default behavior of the latest versions of Excel is that your pane settings should be persistent, just as Cindy remembers in older versions of Excel. If that is apparently not happening for you, there are a few things you can check:
- See if someone else is updating or using the workbook and, while doing so, removing the panes.
- Check to see if the workbook has a macro that runs automatically when starting that removes the panes. You might try looking for the text 'FreezePanes' in the macros.)
- See if the workbook is actually being saved in a non-Excel format, such as CSV or HTML. Other formats don't necessarily hold on to some settings, such as panes. (Save the file in XLS or XLSM format to see if that fixes the problem.)
- Is the workbook, when open, being worked with using multiple windows? If so, and one of the windows doesn't use panes, the settings in the last-closed window are those that will 'stick' in the workbook.
- Check if the workbook is being shared with others. Some users report an oddity where pane settings may not save properly in shared workbooks.
- Are filters being used in the workbook? If you apply filters, then set panes, and finally remove filters, the panes may also go away.
If none of those ring a bell with you, try starting with a brand new, blank workbook. Put some test data in it, freeze the panes, and then save it. Exit Excel and open the workbook again. If the panes are still there, then this is a good sign that the problem is with the other workbook only. In that case, it could be that the workbook is becoming corrupted (for some reason) and you may need to work on getting your data into a different workbook.
There are two other things you can do, if you desire. One is to simply save a custom view of your worksheet, with the panes in place. You should then be able to load the custom view at a later time and have the pane settings be present (along with many other settings) so that you can continue working with the workbook.
The other thing you could try is to create your own macro that sets the panes as you want them to appear. Here's an example:
This macro would be added to the ThisWorkbook module, and you'll need to change the cell reference (D4) and worksheet name (Sheet1) to reflect where you want the panes set. You could also, if desired, change the code to a 'regular' macro that could be assigned to a shortcut key or the Quick Access Toolbar. That way you could use the macro to set similar panes in any worksheet, with the click of a button.