Views, zoom and split panes

The View tab controls how the workbook looks on screen without changing its contents.

Workbook views

Click a view in View › Workbook views. The current view’s button is highlighted.

In the two page views, a solid line is a page break you inserted and a dashed line is one worked out from the paper size, margins and scaling. Only the solid ones stay put when you change the page setup.

Page breaks

The Page breaks group on the View tab has:

The same commands are in Page Layout › Page setup › Breaks. See Printing and exporting for the messages and how breaks affect printing.

Custom views

A custom view remembers how the workbook looks — the zoom, frozen panes, hidden rows and columns, grid lines, print settings and the current view on every sheet — under a name, so you can switch back to it.

Save a view

1. Set the workbook up the way you want it.
2. Click View › Workbook views › Custom views…. Once there are views, the button shows how many, such as 2 views.
3. In Save how it looks now as, type a name, such as Monthly review.
4. Click Save.

A view remembers, for each sheet: the zoom, the frozen panes, the selection on the current sheet, rows and columns you hid, whether grid lines show, whether the sheet is hidden, its page setup, and the workbook view. It also remembers which sheet was showing.

Show a view

1. Click View › Workbook views › Custom views….
2. Click Show beside the view.

The workbook is put back as the view remembers it. Rows and columns that the view didn’t hide are shown again, except rows hidden by a filter. The status bar says Showing followed by the view’s name. Showing a view is one undo step.

To delete a view, click the bin beside it (Delete followed by its name).

Grid lines

Grid lines in the Show group on the View tab shows or hides the grid lines on the current sheet. This setting is saved with the sheet.

Freeze panes

To keep headings in view while you scroll, click the freeze panes button in View › Window. See Rows, columns and sheets.

Split the window

A split divides the sheet into panes that scroll separately, so you can compare row 4 with row 4,000 without losing either.

1. Click the cell where the split should go. The panes divide above and to the left of it.
2. Click Split in View › Window.

Grey lines mark the split. Scrolling with the mouse wheel or trackpad scrolls the pane under the pointer. The status bar says, for example, Split at D20. The panes scroll independently; freeze panes if you meant to pin the headings instead.

To remove the split, click Split again (Remove the split). The status bar says Split removed.

If the current cell is A1, there is nowhere to split, and the status bar says Put the cursor where the split should go first — the panes divide above and to the left of it.

The difference from frozen panes: frozen rows and columns stay still, while the panes of a split each scroll.

Zoom

Zoom affects only the screen, not printing. Custom views remember it.