CensusTools

Where did my data go?

I received a frantic e-mail last month from a person wanting to know where their data went after entering a page of information in a spreadsheet. After a couple of exchanges I realized that she wasn't familiar with MS Excel's "freeze pane" feature. Here's how freeze pane works.

Depending on your particular screen resolution, you may not be able to see the entire worksheet page when entering data in a spreadsheet. If you are entering data at the bottom of a page and can't see the field names at the top of the page, then it very tedious work.

The freeze pane feature allows you to designate a point which will remain stationary when scrolling down the worksheet page. When I create a new census spreadsheet I always enable freeze pane so that the column field names remain in place, no matter how many lines are used in the worksheet. It's very handy when you know it's enabled but frustrating if you don't. It can easily appear that your data is gone, when in fact it has simply scrolled "behind" the top of the screen.

If you prefer that the feature be turned off, left click "window" in the top menu bar and select "unfreeze panes". To re-enable it later, highlight the bottom row you want to be held stationary and select "freeze pane".