The View Tab in Microsoft Excel provides tools for controlling how a worksheet and workbook are displayed on the screen. It helps users change the worksheet view, zoom in or out, freeze rows and columns, arrange multiple windows, and manage workbook visibility.
Workbook Management focuses on organizing worksheets, protecting workbooks, managing multiple sheets, and keeping Excel files easy to use and maintain.
These features are useful when working with large spreadsheets, student databases, financial reports, attendance records, sales reports, and professional dashboards.
The View Tab contains several useful groups.
| Group | Main Options |
|---|---|
| Workbook Views | Normal, Page Break Preview, Page Layout |
| Show | Formula Bar, Gridlines, Headings |
| Zoom | Zoom, 100%, Zoom to Selection |
| Window | New Window, Arrange All, Freeze Panes, Split, Hide, View Side by Side |
| Macros | View Macros |
Note: Available options may vary slightly depending on the Excel version.
Normal View is the default Excel worksheet view.
It is mainly used for:
Go to:
View → Normal
This is the most commonly used worksheet view.
Page Layout View shows the worksheet approximately as it will appear when printed.
It displays:
View → Page Layout
It is useful when preparing:
Page Break Preview displays how Excel will divide the worksheet into printed pages.
View → Page Break Preview
You can adjust the page boundaries to control which data appears on each printed page.
The Formula Bar displays the contents of the active cell.
It is especially useful when entering or editing formulas.
If cell A1 contains:
=SUM(B1:B10)
the formula can be viewed and edited from the Formula Bar.
Go to:
View → Show → Formula Bar
Gridlines are the light lines that separate cells.
They make it easier to identify rows and columns while working.
Go to:
View → Show → Gridlines
Gridlines can be hidden when creating a clean-looking dashboard or presentation-style worksheet.
Excel headings display:
Go to:
View → Show → Headings
Hiding headings can make a dashboard look cleaner.
Zoom controls the size at which worksheet content appears on the screen.
It does not normally change the actual size of printed data.
For a detailed worksheet, you can zoom to 80%.
For small data, you can zoom to 120%.
Zoom to Selection automatically adjusts the worksheet view so that the selected cells fill the available screen area.
This is useful when working with a particular section of a large worksheet.
Freeze Panes keeps selected rows or columns visible while scrolling.
This is extremely useful when working with large datasets.
Suppose you have 500 student records and the headings are in Row 1.
When you scroll down, the headings may disappear.
Using Freeze Top Row keeps Row 1 visible.
This keeps the first row visible while scrolling vertically.
View → Freeze Panes → Freeze Top Row
| Roll No. | Student Name | Course | Marks |
|---|
The headings remain visible even when you scroll through hundreds of records.
This keeps the first column visible while scrolling horizontally.
If Column A contains Roll Numbers, freezing the first column keeps the roll numbers visible while moving across many subject columns.
View → Freeze Panes → Freeze First Column
You can freeze both rows and columns at the same time.
Suppose:
Select cell B2, then use:
View → Freeze Panes → Freeze Panes
This keeps:
while scrolling.
The Split feature divides the worksheet window into multiple sections.
This allows you to view different areas of the same worksheet simultaneously.
You can compare the top part of a large worksheet with the bottom part without switching worksheets.
The New Window option opens another window of the same workbook.
This allows you to view different parts of the same workbook simultaneously.
You can view:
Sheet 1 in one window and Sheet 2 in another window.
View → New Window
When multiple Excel windows are open, Arrange All helps organize them on the screen.
Available arrangements may include:
This is useful for comparing information.
View Side by Side allows two workbook windows to be displayed next to each other.
It is useful for comparing:
When two worksheets or workbook windows are viewed side by side, Synchronous Scrolling can make both windows scroll together.
This is useful for comparing corresponding sections of two reports.
If multiple Excel workbook windows are open, Switch Windows allows you to move between them.
View → Switch Windows
Select the workbook you want to display.
You can hide an entire workbook window without closing the file.
View → Hide
View → Unhide
This can be useful when temporarily removing a workbook from the screen while keeping it open.
A workbook can contain multiple worksheets.
You can manage worksheets using options such as:
Change:
Sheet1 → Student Marks
You can create additional worksheets when required.
A workbook can contain:
Important: Deleting a worksheet can remove its data. Check the sheet carefully before deleting it.
A worksheet can be moved to another position or copied.
This is useful when creating similar reports for different months or departments.
A worksheet can be hidden without deleting it.
Right-click the worksheet tab → Hide
Right-click another worksheet tab → Unhide
Select the hidden worksheet and click OK.
Hidden sheets can store:
Sheet tab colors help visually organize a workbook.
For example:
Workbook protection can help prevent unauthorized structural changes.
Depending on the Excel version, protection options may include:
This can prevent users from:
Protection features are designed to prevent accidental or unauthorized changes, but they should not be treated as a substitute for secure data storage.
Worksheet protection can restrict changes to cells and worksheet structure.
It can be useful when you want users to enter data only in specific cells while protecting formulas.
In a marksheet:
This helps prevent accidental changes to formulas.
A well-organized workbook should use meaningful names.
Book1.xlsx
ADCA_Student_Marks_2026.xlsx
Create a workbook named:
ADCA_Student_Management.xlsx
Create these worksheets:
Perform the following tasks:
Create an Excel workbook for a computer institute containing at least 30 student records.
ADCA_Workbook_Management.xlsx
| Shortcut | Function |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + S | Save Workbook |
| Ctrl + O | Open Workbook |
| Ctrl + N | New Workbook |
| Ctrl + W | Close Workbook |
| Ctrl + Page Up | Previous Worksheet |
| Ctrl + Page Down | Next Worksheet |
| Alt + Page Up | Move one screen left |
| Alt + Page Down | Move one screen right |
| Ctrl + Home | Go to beginning |
| Ctrl + End | Go to last used cell |
| F5 | Go To |
| Ctrl + F | Find |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
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