How to Use Excel Split Screen? 3 Simple Ways
(Note: This guide on how to use Excel Split Screen is suitable for all Excel versions including Office 365)
Excel is famous for its user-friendliness and efficiency when it comes to handling large amounts of data. Especially, when dealing with real-time applications like big data or statistics, there will be a lot of quantitative data.
Excel only allows you to view more or less 28 rows and 23 columns. But what if you have hundreds of rows and columns and want to compare them. There might be some cases where you might need to compare two data. What would you do if the data are separated and far apart?
Scrolling, searching, and comparing the information might not be feasible and efficient. In such a case, Excel allows you to split screens to enable you to visually compare any data.
In this guide, I will show you how to split screen in Excel the easy way.
You’ll Learn:
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How Does Splitting Work in Excel?
In Excel, you can split a datasheet into separate panes and compare the data. You can split the panes either horizontally or vertically, or partition them both horizontally and vertically.
Each pane grants you the ability to independently scroll and compare the data. This helps you to view each part of the same worksheet independently.
I will explain how to split the screen in Excel using an example. Consider an Excel spreadsheet consisting of the number of sales made by 30+ people for two years.
How to Use Excel Split Screen Horizontally?
From the above example, imagine you want to compare the sales of the first 15 employees to the next 15 employees. In this case, you have to split the screen horizontally to compare the data.
To split the screen horizontally, select the first cell or the entire row where you want the split to occur. Always remember that the split always happens above the selected cell or row. In this example, if you want the split to occur after the 15th row, you have to select the 16th row.
Navigate to View in the main menu. Under Window, click on Split.
This splits up the Excel sheet into two parts; the upper and lower part. You can see that there are two scroll bars for individual panes. You can use them to scroll the sheet independently and compare the data.
You can also change the size of the pane by moving the split bar up or down. Place the mouse pointer on the gray bar to turn the normal pointer into a double-sided pointer. Click, drag, and drop where you want to position the split bar.
How to Use Excel Split Screen Vertically?
Now, let us see how to split the screen in Excel vertically using the same example.
From the above-mentioned example, consider if you want to compare the sales made in the previous year’s month of January to the sales made in this year’s month of January. To compare these data, the Excel sheet has to be split vertically.
To split the screen vertically, select the column or the first cell of the column you want to split. Always remember that the split always happens to the left of the selected column.
In this case, for the split to happen after December and before January, select the column January (Column M).
Navigate to View. Under Window, select Split.
This splits the sheet vertically. The partition can be seen by a gray line.
Once the split occurs, you can scroll the two split screens independently to view and compare data.
You can use the split bar to change the width of each portion. Place the mouse pointer on the gray line. You can see the mouse pointer change into a double-sided pointer. Click on it and drag the gray line to the desired width.
How to Use Excel Split Screen Both Horizontally and Vertically?
In most cases, you might only have to split the data horizontally or vertically to compare the data. However, in some cases, you might have to compare the data simultaneously. In those cases, there is a need for a four-way split.
To split the screen both horizontally and vertically, just select the cell you want the split to occur. In this case, when selecting the cell, the split occurs to the left and above the cell.
From the above example, if you want to split the screen after the 15th employee and after December, select cell M16.
Like splitting the screen horizontally or vertically, navigate to View in the main menu. Under Window, select Split.
The split is indicated by a gray line. The split occurs above and to the left of the cell, therefore splitting the cell into four as per your requirement.
The four-way split allows you to scroll the sheet in a horizontal and vertical direction independently.
Since you split the screen both horizontally and vertically, you can adjust the width of the Excel split screen in both directions. Place the mouse pointer in the horizontal or vertical line if you want to move the gray line horizontally or vertically. Place the mouse pointer in the middle of the split to see a four-way mouse pointer. This helps you move the gray line in both directions.
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How to Unsplit the Screen?
Until now, we only have seen how to split the cells. Once you have viewed and compared the values, you might want to unsplit the screens to their original format.
To unsplit the screen, navigate to View. Under Windows, click on Split. Make sure that you are working with an already split screen. This removes the split and reverts the Excel screen to its original format.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the split screen option in Excel?
You can find the split-screen option in the View main menu under the Windows section.
How many ways can we split an Excel screen?
You can either split the screen into two halves either horizontally or vertically or into four halves both horizontally and vertically.
How to scroll the split screens in Excel?
You can scroll the split cells using the scroll bar in each of the split planes.
Closing Thoughts
Using Excel split screen provides an easy way to view, compare, and contrast values that will be hard to find when there are large amounts of data.
In this guide, I have shown you how to split the screen in Excel horizontally, vertically, and both horizontally and vertically in an easy way. Also, we saw how to unsplit the screen. Use any method depending on your preference and requirement.
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Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!