Sometimes we forget about the small features that can make our lives easier.

In today's Between the Sheets, we’re exploring:

• top tip for anyone working with a lot of data in Excel 💡
• sneak peek at what I'm working on now 📈
• checklists in Word ☑️

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🥶 How to Freeze a Row in Excel

Have you ever scrolled through a lengthy spreadsheet, only to lose track of the headers?

It's a common and frustrating problem.

Thankfully, Excel has a very easy solution for that.

It's called Freeze Panes and you'll find it on the View tab.

You can Freeze Top Row or Freeze First Column. But the Freeze Panes option is the most powerful. It allows you to freeze multiple rows and columns in any place in the worksheet.

That way, you can keep both headers and row labels in view while you scroll down and across.

The key is selecting the right cell before you click "Freeze Panes".

Imagine you want to freeze the first two rows (the headers are in the second row) and column A.

Select the cell that is immediately below the last row and to the right of the last column you wish to freeze. In this case - cell B3.

With B3 selected, go to View (tab) > Window (group) > Freeze Panes > Freeze Panes.

Now, even when you go to the very end of your data, you will still have the context of the headers. The frozen rows and columns remain visible.

To unfreeze, repeat the same steps: View > Window > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes.

👉 Check out our blog post to download a practice file.

The article also shows how to add the Freeze Panes button to the Quick Access Toolbar. If you use this feature a lot, this will save you a ton of time.

🎬 New Course Coming Soon

Starting February, I've been recording lectures for the new Business Charts Excel course. We're deep in production mode and you'll soon hear more about it. Here's a peek behind the scenes:

The course was inspired by charts from The Economist and McKinsey. When I spoke to people about Excel charts, the most common response was: "I wish I could create charts that looked like The Economist". They are considered benchmarks in business communication.

I picked out the techniques and visuals that will make a big impact in corporate reports. I broke it down, step by step, and condensed into our Business Charts course.

You know I'm a fan of dynamic solutions, and that includes charts. With the formulas you'll learn in this course, you set up a chart once and simply update your data. No more hours spent on setting up data and manual tweaks.

We're aiming to launch early in Q2.

If you want to be the first to hear about it (and grab our launch discount), join our 👉 interest list now.
​

Live webinar (postponed from February)

During Global Excel Summit, I planned to deliver a webinar on Corporate Charts Inspired by Social Media.

Unfortunately, we were derailed by some technical gremlins and me losing my voice. But here we go again. Nothing gets (permanently) in the way of our charts fun. 😁

Save the date: Thursday, March 14th, 9:00-9:45 am GMT.

If you were a GES2024 participant, there's no need to sign up. You should receive a direct invite to the session.

Anyone else can 👉 sign up here.

🤓 Geeky News

📊 Power BI - IBCS*-inspired improvements to column & bar charts

The latest update to Power BI gave us new formatting options for column and bar charts.

Some of them have long been available in Excel charts, some we wish Excel had.

They include the ability to adjust the gap between the series and to overlap them. You can then individually sort each overlapping cluster of columns or bars.

The new zoom slider lets you easily resize columns.

The ribbon lets you connect the bars or columns in stacked charts. That way you can track the rank changes between categories.

*International Business Communication Standards

📈 Excel for the Web - charting enhancements and images in pivot tables

Speaking of charts, Excel for the Web is getting new functionalities. It's finally possible to update the source data for a chart in the web version.

When you click Select Data on the ribbon, a data task pane will open. You can change the source range as well as switch between the vertical and horizontal axis. You can also decide whether to display hidden and empty cells.

Also, Excel for the Web now supports images and rich data types in pivot tables. This feature came to desktop a few months ago but only to Office Insiders. Now anyone with a Microsoft 365 account can take advantage of this cool feature.

In other Excel news, the new default theme is moving into general availability. Calibri will have to come to terms with getting dethroned as the default font. 😅

📄 Word getting a checklist

Staying in the Office world, Word for the Web is getting a checklist.

You can now turn bulleted lists into interactive checklists. When you check the boxes, the tasks get automatically crossed out.

It may not be as useful as Excel checkboxes, but still has very practical applications.

For example, you can use it for employee onboarding. Or check off items in your outline when writing a paper or report. That way you'll know you won't miss anything.

👏 Power Stories

I wanted to highlight a couple of reviews for the Excel Essentials for the Real World course. They have a common theme of sharing knowledge.

	The biggest win after completing the course is my confidence. I know I am able to accomplish certain things in Excel with relative ease, without too much stress, and that is a big bonus. I'm more confident in helping colleagues with problems they face in Excel.
	Diana Brown, Excel Essentials

I can already apply the new things I learned, and I will now be able to do certain tasks in a much smarter or faster way. Also, I could share my newly acquired knowledge with colleagues, friends, and family, which was a great way to consolidate my understanding.
Andrea Nothmann, Excel Essentials

If you learn something useful, pass it on. You will help your colleagues, but also - as Andrea pointed out - it will improve your own confidence in the topic.

So next time you see a colleague lost in a spreadsheet, show them how to freeze rows. 😊

See you next week,

Leila

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