How to lock screen to prevent scrolling in Excel worksheet?

Normally, you can scroll the scroll bar to any direction of the worksheet, but, sometimes, you need to block scrolling and keep the worksheet screen up to a certain area-A1:M100, for instance. In Excel, how could you finish this job quickly and easily?

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with setting the properties manually

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with VBA code

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with Kutools for Excel by one click

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with setting the properties manually

Actually, you can go to the Properties box to set the ScrollArea to your needed range address. Please do as follows:

1. Go to the worksheet that you want to lock the screen area.

2. Then click Developer > Properties, in the Properties dialog box, enter the range address (A1:M100) you need into the ScrollArea text box, see screenshot:

3. Then close the Properties box, and now, you will be restricted to click or scroll to the cells beyond the range you are specified in the Properties dialog.

Notes:

1. The cell address you enter must be a contiguous range.

2. If you want to clear the scroll area lock, you just need to delete the range address from the ScrollArea Properties box in above step 2.

3. This setting will be invalid when you open the workbook next time.

Tips: If the Developer tab is not displayed in your ribbon, you can view this How to show/display developer tab in Excel 2007/2010/2013 Ribbon? article to show it.

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with VBA code

Here also is a simple code for you to solve this job, please do as follows:

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

VBA code: Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Sheets("Sheet1").ScrollArea = "A1:M100"
End Sub

3. Then press F5 key to run this code, and your scroll area of the specified sheet and range has been set successfully.

Notes:

1. In the above code, Sheet1 is the worksheet and A1:M100 is the cells range that you want to only be used, you can change them to your need.

2. To cancel the lock of the worksheet screen, please apply following code:

VBA code: Cancel the lock of worksheet screen

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Sheets("Sheet1").ScrollArea = ""
End Sub

Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with Kutools for Excel by one click

If you have Kutools for Excel, with its Set Scroll Area utility, you can quickly lock and hide other direction beyond the selected range with only one click.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:

1. Select the range that you want to use only, and then click Kutools > Show & Hide > Set Scroll Area, see screenshot:

2. And only your selected cells can be used, others are hidden and disable to be viewed or edited. See screenshot:

Note: To display other cells, you should click Kutools > Show & Hide > Unhide All Ranges, see screenshot:

Download and free trial Kutools for Excel Now !

Demo: Lock worksheet screen to prevent scrolling with Kutools for Excel by one click