Row Header In Excel

The ROW Header in Excel is one of the main components in Excel worksheet features. It gives an idea of which cell we are working on, such as which row and column number cell.

We may find it difficult to print the Excel Row header in a large dataset or lose them when scrolling from left to right. We can use options such as show/hide, freeze, and lock to print them.

For example, we can see the Row Headers in Excel in the image below.

• The Row Header in Excel helps the user to immediately identify the cell address of the active cell.
• The Rows and Columns are the main features that create a worksheet. They run horizontally from top to bottom and vertically from left to right, giving the tabular format to the sheet. And when a Row and Column intersect, they form a Cell.
• In a workbook, we can insert, delete, hide, resize, move, copy, and group Rows and Columns. Any changes we make apply only to the current worksheet.
• The shortcut key for hiding or showing Row and Column headers is ALT + W + V + H.
• We cannot show/hide headers for the entire workbook at once, however, we can select multiple worksheets and show/hide headers.

We will consider the following example of a worksheet to show or hide Row Header In Excel.

We can see all the row and column headers in excel, by default.

The procedure to show/hide the Row and Column header is as follows:

First, select the “VIEW” tab - go to the “Show” group - uncheck the “Headings” option checkbox to hide them, and check/tick the checkbox to show them in the current sheet, as shown below.

The Output is shown below:

We will consider the following example of a worksheet to freeze and lock Row Header In Excel.

Now, take a look at the huge datasheet below.

The first column is the heading for all the rows for this data. Now, we will move from left to right. When we move from left to right to the end of the dataset or the last column of the data, we cannot see the row headers now.

We can only see Excel row headers but not the data row headers. It is so confusing which row header we are referring to now. Going back and seeing the row header now and then is a frustrating job to do.

The steps to lock and freeze our row heading are as follows:

• Step 1: Go to View - Freeze Panes.

• Step 2: Click the Freeze Panes option drop-down, and select the “Freeze First column”.

• Step 3: It does not matter where we are on the sheet. We can see our row header at all points in time as it is locked and frozen in the dataset.

Now, it is easier to understand exactly which row we are referring to and what the row header is.

We often do not worry about printing our Row and Column headers in our printing options. But now, look at the screenshot below of the print preview in excel.

It shows only the data range but not our Excel Row and Column headers. Remember, “Data Headers” are user headers, and Row and Column headers are Excel headers.

To print the Row and Column headers, we need some twists in the print settings before we go ahead and print. The steps are,

• Step 1: Go to “PAGE LAYOUT”, and click the “PAGE SETUP” arrow.

• Step 2: Now, we will see the Page Setup window.

• Step 3: Click the “Sheet” tab in this “Page Setup” window.

• Step 4: Under this tab, check/tick the “Row and column headings” checkbox, and click “OK”, as shown below.

• Step 5: Now, see the print preview. We can see row & column headers here.

• Ensure never to Hide the Row and Column headers when dealing with a huge dataset, as it will only add confusion.
• We can freeze or lock as many rows as possible by placing the cursor after the last row.

This article is a guide to Row Header in Excel. Here we discuss to show, hide, lock, freeze, print row headers in sheet, examples, downloadable excel template. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: -

• Freeze Cells in Excel
• Excel VBA Last Row
• Cell Reference in Excel
• Use of Uppercase in Excel