Excel View Tab Guide: Views, Freeze Panes & Display
What You'll Achieve and What to Have Open Before Using the Excel View Tab
The View tab is the most overlooked tab in Excel, and that's a problem, because it controls how you see your data, and how you see your data affects whether you catch mistakes before they leave your desk. This Excel View tab guide walks you through switching workbook views, locking rows and columns in place with freeze panes, and toggling display settings like gridlines and the formula bar. Before you start, have a workbook open in Microsoft Excel, ideally Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021, since a couple of features covered here (Sheet View specifically) won't appear in older versions. If you're brand new to the ribbon layout, the Excel Interface and Navigation Guide is worth a quick read first.
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| The View tab in Microsoft Excel, with the three groups you'll actually use: Workbook Views on the left, Show in the middle, and Window on the right. |
Step 1: Switch Between Excel Workbook Views Without Losing Your Place
Open the View tab and look at the far left of the ribbon. That first group, Workbook Views, has three options you'll actually use: Normal, Page Layout, and Page Break Preview. Most people stay in Normal view their entire Excel careers and wonder why their printed reports look wrong.
Normal View vs. Page Layout View vs. Page Break Preview: When to Use Each
Normal view is your everyday working environment. Nothing special to say about it. It's just Excel doing its thing.
Page Layout view is where you should be when you're building a report that needs to look clean on paper. You'll see rulers, margin indicators, and the actual page boundaries as you work. I use this one constantly for the department head reports I put together each week. It saves the back-and-forth of switching to a separate preview window.
Page Break Preview is different, and this is where a lot of people get confused: it is not the same as Print Preview. Print Preview shows you a static image of what will print. Page Break Preview is an interactive view where you can drag the blue dashed lines to adjust where your pages break, useful right before you send a multi-page spreadsheet to the printer. Confusing these two is one of the most common mistakes I see, so it's worth pausing on that distinction.
All three views are available across desktop Excel versions. No Microsoft 365 subscription required for any of them.
Step 2: Freeze Panes and Split Windows Using the Excel View Tab
Once you've got your view sorted, the next thing that'll save you real time is learning how to freeze rows and columns so your headers stay visible while you scroll through hundreds of rows of data.
Go to View > Freeze Panes. You'll see three options: Freeze Panes (custom), Freeze Top Row, and Freeze First Column. Freeze Top Row and Freeze First Column do exactly what they say. The custom option, Freeze Panes, freezes everything above and to the left of whichever cell you've selected. That last part trips people up constantly. I used to mess this up too: I'd select row 2 and then wonder why Excel froze in a weird place. The rule is simple: select the cell below and to the right of where you want the freeze to happen.
There's no dedicated keyboard shortcut to freeze panes, but you can reach it through the Alt key sequence: Alt > W > F > F on Windows. Worth memorizing if you freeze panes as often as I do.
Split view is a different tool. View > Split divides your worksheet into up to four independent scrollable panes, useful when you need to compare data from row 5 against data from row 500 without jumping back and forth. (Honestly, it sounds more useful than it is for most tasks. Freeze Panes handles 90% of what people think Split is for.)
Mac users: the Alt key sequences above don't apply. Use the View menu in the ribbon directly. The options are in the same place, just no keyboard path equivalent.
Step 3: Show or Hide Gridlines, the Formula Bar, and Headings
With your view and panes set up, there's one more group worth knowing: Show. It's the set of checkboxes on the View tab that controls whether you see gridlines, the formula bar, and row/column headings.
Gridlines are the faint lines between cells. You'd turn these off when you're preparing a clean dashboard screenshot or printing a report where the table borders are already styled. Gridlines create visual noise in those cases. The shortcut on Windows is Alt > W > VG to toggle them. Quick note for Mac users: go to View > Show > Gridlines directly in the ribbon.
The formula bar sits above the grid and shows the contents of whatever cell you've selected. If you're doing any work with formulas (and if you're reading an Excel for Beginners resource alongside this), you don't want to hide it. Accidentally unchecking it is one of the most common beginner panics I've seen: the formula bar disappears and there's no obvious "undo" button for it. The fix is just to go back to View > Show > Formula Bar and check it again. Takes five seconds, but it can feel catastrophic in the moment if you don't know where to look. For a deeper look at what the formula bar actually does, the Understanding the Formula Bar in Excel guide covers it well.
Row and column headings (the numbered rows and lettered columns on the edges of your grid) can also be toggled off. Again, dashboard work is the main use case. Hiding them gives screenshots a cleaner, more finished look.
Common Mistakes When Using the Excel View Tab and How to Avoid Them
Three mistakes come up over and over, and all three are easy to avoid once you know what you're looking at.
First: confusing Page Layout view with Print Preview. Page Layout is an editable working view. Print Preview is a read-only preview you access via File > Print. They show similar things, but one lets you keep working and one doesn't. Use Page Layout view while you're building; use Print Preview as a final check.
Second: hiding the formula bar by accident. If it disappears, go to View > Show and re-check the Formula Bar box. That's the whole fix.
Third: Sheet View confusion. This one catches people off guard in 2026 more than ever, because shared workbooks are now the norm. Sheet View lets you set personal filters and sort orders on a shared file without disrupting your collaborators. It sounds like exactly what you'd want for team spreadsheets. But it only works in files stored on SharePoint or OneDrive, and it requires Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021. If Sheet View is grayed out in your ribbon, that's why: either the file isn't saved to the cloud, or you're on an older Excel version. It's not a bug. It's just a version-and-storage requirement that Microsoft buries in the fine print.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the View tab in Excel used for?
The View tab controls how your workbook looks on screen, not the data itself, just the display. From here you switch between Normal, Page Layout, and Page Break Preview modes, freeze rows and columns so headers stay visible while scrolling, show or hide gridlines and the formula bar, and manage multiple windows or sheets at once.
What is the difference between Page Layout view and Print Preview in Excel?
Page Layout view is an interactive, editable mode where you can keep working while seeing page margins and boundaries in real time. Print Preview (accessed via File > Print) is a static, read-only preview. You can't edit anything there. Use Page Layout while building your report; use Print Preview as a final check before you send it.
What is Sheet View in Excel and how does it work with collaborators?
Sheet View lets you apply personal filters and sort settings on a shared workbook without changing what your collaborators see. It's genuinely useful for team files, but it only works when the file is stored on SharePoint or OneDrive, and it requires Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021. If the option is grayed out, check both of those conditions first.
How do I freeze panes in Excel using the View tab?
Go to View > Freeze Panes. To freeze the top row only, choose Freeze Top Row. To freeze the first column, choose Freeze First Column. For a custom freeze (say, locking the first two rows and the first column), click the cell below and to the right of where you want the freeze, then choose Freeze Panes. Getting the cell selection right before you click is the part most people miss the first time.
Pick one view setting from this article and try it on a spreadsheet you're already working in this week. Real data, real use: that's when it sticks.
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