In Excel columns are labeled as

By Shawn McClain Updated February 12, 2019

For many small business owners, Microsoft Excel is not only a powerful tool for internal tracking and bookkeeping, but it can also be used to prepare documents for distribution to partners or customers. When creating a spreadsheet for distribution, controlling the spreadsheet's appearance ensures it appears professional to colleagues and outside contacts. Excel offers two types of column headings; the letters the Excel assigns to each column, which you can toggle in both view and print modes, or the headings that you create yourself and place in the spreadsheet's first row, which you can then freeze in place.

Excel refers to rows by number and columns by letter, starting the first row at one and the first column with "A". For some purposes, this is fine, but you often want to add your own column labels in Excel specifying for yourself and other people using the spreadsheet what each column contains.

For instance, if each row is an employee record, you might label columns with headers such as "first name", "last name", "email address" and the like.

2. Open the Excel spreadsheet where you want to define your column headings.

4. Click the "Page Layout" tab at the top of the ribbon, then find the Sheet Options area of the ribbon, which includes two small checkboxes under the Headings category.

6. Add or remove a check mark next to "View" to reveal or hide, respectively, the Excel headings on the spreadsheet. The headings for the columns and rows are linked, so you can only either see them both, or hide them both. The column headings will be letters and the row headings will be numbers.

8. Place a check mark in the box next to "Print" to have Excel include the column and row headings on anything that you print out. These headings will appear on every page that you print, not just the first.

2. Open the spreadsheet where you want to have Excel make the top row a header row.

4. Enter the column headings for your data across the top row of the spreadsheet, if necessary. If your data is already present in the top row, right-click on the number "1" on the top of the left side of the spreadsheet and choose "Insert" from the pop-up menu to create a new top row, then enter your headings by typing in the appropriate cell.

6. Click on the number "2" on the left side of the spreadsheet to select the second row, which is the now the first row under the headings and the first containing actual data.

8. Click the "View" tab in the ribbon menu, and then click the "Freeze Panes" button in the Window area of the ribbon. Your column headers now stay visible as you scroll down the spreadsheet, letting you see which column is which as you edit the document.

10. Click the "Page Layout" tab if you want your headers to print on every page of the spreadsheet. Click the arrow next to "Sheet Options" in the ribbon to open a small window. Check the box next to "Rows to repeat at top," which shrinks the window and takes you back to the spreadsheet. Click the number one on the left side of the spreadsheet, and then click the small box again to return the window to its normal size. Click "OK" to save your changes.

This Excel tutorial explains how to change column headings from numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) back to letters (A, B, C, D) in Excel 2016 (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

Question: In Microsoft Excel 2016, my Excel spreadsheet has numbers for both rows and columns. How do I change the column headings back to letters such as A, B, C, D?

Answer: Traditionally, column headings are represented by letters such as A, B, C, D. If your spreadsheet shows the columns as numbers, you can change the headings back to letters with a few easy steps.

In the example below, the column headings are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of the traditional A, B, C, D values that you normally see in Excel. When the column headings are numeric values, R1C1 reference style is being displayed in the spreadsheet.

To change the column headings to letters, select the File tab in the toolbar at the top of the screen and then click on Options at the bottom of the menu.

When the Excel Options window appears, click on the Formulas option on the left. Then uncheck the option called "R1C1 reference style" and click on the OK button.

Now when you return to your spreadsheet, the column headings should be letters (A, B, C, D) instead of numbers (1, 2, 3, 4).

Which of the following will result in error in Excel? I. Dividing a number by 0 II. Multiplying a number by 0 III. Looking up non-existent value in lookup functions IV. Looking up values in a list containing more than ten lookup-values (1 Point) I and II II and III I and III I, II and III