Name a column in Excel

Hello. First I should tell what I'd like to do. I'd like for when I print an Excel worksheet that there are "names" (of my choosing) at the top of the columns. I tried all the different ways in "HELP" to give the columns a name. None worked. All my attempts ended with a not-very-helpful message to the effect that I was doing something wrong.

So, how can I assign names that will appear at the tops of my columns when I print a worksheet?

Thanks much,

Richard

 

Put names of columns in row one? Well, yes, I suppose so. I've done that in the past, but often I do a sort before I print, so then I have to go looking for where the [former] row one went (a bit annoying), and move it back to row one. I just tried looking for a way to sort just a selection of rows (like all of the rows but row one), but there doesn't seem to be such a way.

That's why I was looking into "naming" a column.

Thanks for your reply.

 

Yes, I saw those things you mentioned in Excel's HELP. But, what if you want to sort only on column 1, and you only want to include from cell 2 of column 1 to the last cell in the sort. In other words you want, to leave cell 1 of column 1 out of the sort. Can you do that? I haven't seen any way to do that.

 

When you do a data sort function in Excel the dialog box has an option to define the first row as a header row. Then row one does not get included in the sort ouput. At least with Excel 97 and 2000 this is the case.

Is the solution that simple, or am I missing something in your question?

 

Yes, pretty that much simple. Not missing anything. I had seen the sort data dialog box earlier. I guess I just did not notice the header button.

Is there a way to make the printout look like a "table ", i.e., with lines separating each column and row?

Thanks.

 

Use the Cell format tool to outline the cells to your liking for appearance as a table. Just right click > choose Format Cells > Border - and do the deed. You may need to practice using different line thicknesses and such but it's all there.

 

Print preview>setup > check box "gridlines ".

 

Borders, eah. Gridlines, eah? Very interesting. I tried both methods, and they worked fine. However, as I was checking the "gridlines" box, I noticed another one.... "row and column headings ". That brings me back to my very first posting on this matter. I'd like my column headings to NOT be "A ", "B ", "C ", etc. I'd like to change "A" to "Emp. Name" (for example), and "B" to "Emp. Addr." )for example). How do I do that? I searched for "column name" in the Excel HELP, and think there perhaps 3 different ways to do it. I tried them all, but I always got a message that said in effect that I could not do it because I had to use a valid name

Thanks for any more light you can shed on this.

 

"row and column headings" will give you the ABC's and the 123's printed on the form along with the column headers you designed. I have a form with column headers for taking my blood glucose and my blood pressure etc. The row and column headers show on the window but printing is without the ABC's etc.

 

OK. Thanks to everyone for all your help.

 

If you're wanting to name each column and then have those column headings always show no matter how much scrolling up and down you do, click on the number at the left end of the row in which you have typed the headings to select the whole row. Then go to Window>Freeze Panes.

That will freeze that row so that it will not scroll with the rest of the spreadsheet.

 

Hmm, that sounds interesting. I'm not sure that's what I want, but maybe...

I tried what you said, and I did see that effect, sort of. Unfortunately not only my "header" row got frozen but also the next 10 rows (there's a dashed line around that entire "box ". I went back to try to "unfreeze" what I did, and I saw a selection "unfreeze pane" (whadda ya know!). I clicked that, and it did an "unfreeze ", but the dashed line is still there. How do I undo that association? What's more, how did I get that association in the first place? (I don't think that dashed line was there before I went to try what you suggested. ???????

Thanks