Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Positioning a Column on the Screen.

Positioning a Column on the Screen

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 22, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365


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Riek encountered a problem while developing a macro that sets up the screen for user input. Columns A:G always need to stay on the screen, so his macro freezes those columns. He then issues a command to move to column Z to start input. This places columns T:Z to the right of the frozen columns A:G. What Riek really wants is for columns Z:AF to appear to the right of A:G, but he doesn't know how to accomplish that.

There are several ways that the desired results can be achieved. The first is to simply move "past" the desired target, and then move back to it, as in the following macro:

Sub GotoCol1()
    With Application
        ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = False
        Range("H1").Select
        ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True
        .Goto Range("IV1")
        .Goto Range("Z1")
    End With
End Sub

The important code lines are those that use the Goto method. The first jump is to the last cell of the first row, and the second jump moves back to the true target, Z1. By moving in this way, column Z ends up just to the right of the frozen range, A:G.

While this works just fine, a better solution would be to use the Scroll parameter with the Goto method. Consider the following example:

Sub GotoCol2()
    ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = False
    Range("H1").Select
    ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True
    Application.Goto Reference:=Range("Z1"), Scroll:=True
End Sub

The Scroll parameter is optional with the Goto method; it defaults to False. If you set it to True, then Goto scrolls through the window so that the upper-left corner of the target range (Z1) appears in the upper-left corner of the window.

Note:

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ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10523) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Positioning a Column on the Screen.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 2 + 4?

2025-03-23 16:50:25

Mike J

Both of these macros fail if columns A:G are not all visible when run. For instance if the leftmost visible column is C then columns A and B will still not be visible after running the macro.

Inserting Range("A1").Select before Range("H1").Select will ensure Columns A:G will all be visible.


2025-03-22 08:38:11

Alan Cannon

I think a simpler approach would be to simply hide columns H:Y then select cell Z1. This can readily be done with a macro. Another macro could unhide the columns before saving or closing.


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