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How to lock or freeze worksheet tab in Excel?

Supposing you have a workbook which contains multiple worksheets, there is a worksheet named Main-sheet as the first tab in the workbook. And now, you want to try to lock or freeze this sheet tab to make it always visible even when scrolling across a number of worksheets. In fact, there is no direct way for you freeze the tab, but, you can use a workaround to deal with this problem.

Lock or freeze a specific worksheet tab with VBA code


arrow blue right bubble Lock or freeze a specific worksheet tab with VBA code

In Excel, we can apply the following VBA code to make the specific worksheet always before your current clicked worksheet tab, so that you can always see this worksheet when you scroll across any other sheet tabs. Please do as follows:

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Then choose ThisWorkbook from the left Project Explorer pane, double click it to open the Module, and then copy and paste following VBA code into the blank Module:

VBA code: Freeze or lock a specific worksheet tab

Private Sub Workbook_SheetActivate(ByVal Sh As Object)
'Update by Extendoffice
Application.EnableEvents = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
If Application.ActiveSheet.Index <> Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Index Then
    Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Move Before:=Application.Sheets(Application.ActiveSheet.Index)
    Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Activate
    Sh.Activate
End If
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub

doc-freeze-sheet-tab-1

3. And then save and close this code, now, when you click any of your worksheet tab, this specific worksheet will be always at the front of your clicked sheet tab, see screenshots:

doc-freeze-sheet-tab-2
-1
doc-freeze-sheet-tab-3

Note: In the above code, the Main-sheet is the sheet name that you want to freeze, you can change it to your need.


Related articles:

How to Freeze Panes in Excel 2010?

How to apply freeze / unfreeze panes to multiple worksheets at once?

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Comments (10)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
chăng đc gi cả
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
As Thuyen pointed out 2 years ago, you can't copy data between sheets while this code is active. Furthermore, the code is needlessly complicated. The sheet that you activate is passed to the procedure as the parameter "Sh". This makes the frequent calls to "ActiveSheet" unnecessary, and could cause problems for someone who's trying to modify the code but isn't very experienced.

Here's my versions that corrects those issues, and even shows how to add a 2nd "Main" sheet (similar to what Dzingai posted):
-----------------------------------------------------------------

'These 2 lines aren't necessary if you use the sheets' codenames, which I recommend.
Set shtMain1 = Worksheets("Main-Sheet-1")
Set shtMain2 = Worksheets("Main-Sheet-2")

If Application.CutCopyMode = False Then
If Sh.Index <> shtMain1.Index And Sh.Index <> shtMain2.Index Then
shtMain1.Move before:=Sh
shtMain2.Move before:=Sh
Sh.Activate
End If
End If
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This code worked well. Only problem is...if we close the file & open it again it goes off.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
[quote]This code worked well. Only problem is...if we close the file & open it again it goes off.By Sangs[/quote] Try saving document as Macro-Enabled Workbook. I think it should work well that way.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Is it possible to create one with multiple arguments? Like instead of just moving the one main sheet to the front of where you are working, is it possible to move three tabs in front of what you are working on?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Yes, it is possible, you just have to add more arguments to the if clause using the "AND" like this IF Application.ActiveSheet.Index Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Index AND Application.ActiveSheet.Index Application.Sheets("Other-Main-sheet").Index and so on... Then Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Move Before:=Application.Sheets(Application.Sheets("Other-Main-sheet").Index) Application.Sheets("Main-sheet").Activate Application.Sheets("Other-Main-sheet").Move Before:=Application.Sheets(Application.ActiveSheet.Index) Application.Sheets("Other-Main-sheet").Activate Sh.Activate This will place the Main-Sheet, then the Other-Main-Sheet in front of your active sheet.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
is this vba my excel sheet not freezeplease give me solution
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Could not get your code to work, but this one did :) Private Sub Workbook_SheetActivate(ByVal Sh As Object) Dim sc As Long ' count of sheets Dim NewPos As Long ' index of serlected sheet Application.EnableEvents = False Application.ScreenUpdating = False If ActiveSheet.Index 1 Then sc = Sheets.Count NewPos = ActiveSheet.Index For i = 2 To NewPos - 1 Sheets(2).Move After:=Sheets(sc) Next i Sheets(1).Activate Sheets(2).Activate End If Application.ScreenUpdating = True Application.EnableEvents = True End Sub
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
When I use VBA, I cannot copy data from Main-Sheet to another sheet Please help me fix this bug
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
hahaha. so true! did you find a fix for this?
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