Freeze Panes in Microsoft Excel

While scrolling a Table of Data m it can be useful to freeze rows so that they stay at the top and/or columns so that they stay at the left. All you need to do is freeze panes. This is particularly useful when working with large Tables of Data. To freeze panes - Window > Freeze Panes.

The effect is:
· Any rows above your cursor will freeze when you freeze panes
· Any columns to the left of your cursor will freeze when you freeze panes

To freeze just the first row, click on A2 first.
To freeze just the first column, click on B1 first.
To freeze both the first row and the first column, click on B2 first.

Regardless of the size of the Table, by automatically using freeze panes, it helps Excel recognise that you have a header row when you use the sort buttons.

Adding or Summing Time in Microsoft Excel

The biggest problem people encounter when they try to add time values is incorrect formatting of the results cell.

In the example below, both A1 and B1 are automatically formatted as time – note the colon (:)separator. A simple sum formula works fine at this point to provide a total of 4 hours.

However, if you try to add 12.5 hours to 12.5 hours; you only get a result of 1 hour.

That's because it's adding the time of day, and not hours. So if you add 12.5 hours to 12:30 on the clock, it's now 1:00 am. You wanted a result of 25 hours.

In the following example, the result cell is formatted to properly add the hours using Format > Cells > Number > Date. Note the square brackets around the hour format. If desired, just delete the last 3 characters in the Type box so that the seconds’ value isn't displayed.

The only thing changed is the format of the result cell: