Excel Row Header
I have seen many people struggle with row headers when the data increases from left to right to excel. They struggle to pick the row headers in printing a large amount of data, referring row headers when they are scrolling from left to right.
In this article, we will concentrate on complete row headers, right from locking it, showing them, hiding them, printing row headers, freezing row headers to see them at all points of time, change row & column reference from A1 to R1C1 reference, and many more in this article.
#1 How to Lock, Show, or Hide Row Headers in Excel?
By default, we can see all the row & column headers in excel.
We can hide the row & column header by showing them under the VIEW tab. We need to uncheck the box Headings to turn them off from showing. We can see this row header when we open any new excel file, however, if someone does not like them. We can turn them off by showing it to the user.
Uncheck the box, and it will turn off ROW & COLUMN headers from the current sheet.

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The Output is shown below:
We can also turn off the row & column headers by following the below steps.
- Step 1: Go to FILE & Options.
- Step 2: Go to Advanced. Scroll down and select the Display option for this worksheet.
- Step 3: Uncheck the box Show row & column headers.
- Step 4: It will hide row & column headers from the selected worksheet.
#2 How to Freeze and Lock Row Headers in Excel?
Now take a look at the below huge datasheet.
The first column is the heading for all the rows for this data. Now I will move from left to right. When I move from left to right, let’s say to the end of the data, i.e., the last column of the data, I cannot see my row headers now.
I can only see excel row headers but not my data row headers here. It is so confusing that actually which row header I am referring to at the moment. Going back and see the row header every now & then is a frustrating job to do so.
Nothing to worry about. We can lock or freeze our row heading by following the below steps.
- Step 1: Go to View > Freeze Panes.
- Step 2: Click on the drop-down list of Freeze Panes in excel and select the Freeze first column.
- Step 3: Now, it doesn’t matter where you are on the sheet. We will be able to see our row heat at all the points of time.
Now it is easier for me to understand exactly which row I am referring to and what is my row header.
#3 How to Print Excel Row & Column Headers?
We often do not worry about printing our row & column headers in our printing options. Now take a look at the below screenshot of print preview in excel.
It shows only the data range but not our excel row & column headers. Remember Data Headers are user headers & row, column headers are excel headers.
In order to print the row & column headers, we need some twist in the print settings before we go ahead and print.
- Step 1: Go to PAGE LAYOUT and click on the PAGE SETUP arrow.
- Step 2: Now, we will see the Page Setup window.
- Step 3: In this page set up window, click on the Sheet tab.
- Step 4: Under this tab, check the box Row & Column Headings.
- Step 5: Now, see the print preview. We can see row & column headers here.
Things to Remember
- Hiding row & column headers will only add confusion when we are dealing with a huge data set.
- ALT + W + V + H is the shortcut key to hide or show row & column headers.
- Whatever the changes you make are applicable only for the current worksheet where you are working at the moment.
- You can freeze or lock as many rows as you want by placing the cursor after the last row.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Row Header in Excel. Here we discuss how to show, lock, freeze, or hide row header in excel along with practical examples and downloadable excel template. You may learn more about excel from the following articles –
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