Working with very large Excel tables is not always easy. This is especially true when you have a lot of inline calculations where the results in one row depend on the data in other rows. To learn how to fix a row in Excel, you need to manipulate the worksheet in such a way that these calculations are not broken.
Other problems that can cause problems when changing cell data is that it is difficult to see the labels in the top row or left column.
There are tricks that can be used to manipulate large spreadsheets by correcting a row in Excel so that you can modify other data without any problem.
How to fix a row in Excel by freezing
Need to fix a row in place so you can see the header or other columns while you edit other areas of the column?
It’s very simple. Select the View menu. Then select Freeze Areas in the Window group on the ribbon. Select Freeze Areas from the drop-down menu.
This option fixes both the rows above the cursor and the columns to the left of the cursor.
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If you only want to freeze the rows above or the columns to the left, you can use one of the other options.
- Lock Top Line: Lock only the top line of the sheet in place.
- Freeze First Column: Freeze only the left row of the sheet.
The freeze feature in Excel is very useful, especially for very large worksheets, where you need to scroll so far to the right or down that the label row or column moves off the sheet.
When you freeze any row or column, it locks in place, so you can see them no matter where else you move the cursor in the spreadsheet.
Add a new row with fixed accounts
On such a large sheet, it can be difficult to add or remove a row and see the result of updating calculations at the bottom of a column or at the end of a row. And since calculations are usually done at the very bottom or to the right of the sheet, the result is usually not displayed on the sheet when you try to delete or add a row.
If you try to use the freeze option to fix that bottom or right cell, it won’t work. This is because the docking function only freezes lines above or to the right of the cursor.
The trick to fix a row or column of calculation in place is to use Excel’s split function.
To do this, place the cursor on the computation you want to correct in place. Choose View from the menu, and then choose Split from the Windows group on the ribbon.
This will lock the calculation at the bottom of the column in place. You can now right-click the gray numbers to the left of any row and choose Delete.
When a row is removed, you can watch the calculation automatically update so you know that there has been a change.
The same approach works if the calculation is performed at the end of a line. Just place your cursor over the calculation, split the sheet, and delete the column. You will see that the calculation is updated automatically.
How to fix all row heights in Excel
While this trick does not technically lock the row in place, it is a way to format all rows at once in Excel. This will save a lot of time when individually adjusting the rows one at a time. This is especially useful for large tables.
To adjust the height of all rows on the sheet, select each row. Then right-click any gray number to the left of the rows and choose Row Height from the menu.
This will open a new window where you can enter the line height. Line height is measured in points, and 72 points in inch. The default line height is 12.75, which corresponds to 10 or 12 point font sizes. For large fonts or images, you can enter any larger height size that suits.
When you click OK, the heights of all rows on the sheet you selected will be resized.
Edit only one cell in a row
Another problem people face on a large sheet with a lot of rows is editing or pasting a cell on one row without affecting the rest of the sheet negatively.
For example, if you inserted a new row of data into a sheet, but there is an additional data point that you want to delete in order to align it with the rest of the sheet, you need to delete the only cell in that row. / p>
To do this, select and right-click that single cell. Select Delete from the drop-down menu. Since the only cell is in the middle of the table and is surrounded by data, Excel will display a special Delete window.
This window allows you to move all other data cells back to the right-hand positions to align with the rest of the worksheet.
- Shift Cells Left: All cells to the right of the deleted cell will be shifted to the left.
- Move Cells Up: All cells below the deleted cell will move up.
- Entire row: The entire row containing the selected cell will be deleted.
- Entire Column: Will remove the entire column containing the selected cell.
All of these Excel tricks allow you to fix a row (or column) in Excel while preserving the calculations or positions of the rest of the data in the worksheet.
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