Imagine a worksheet with several thousand columns, and you are unsure which column represents what. When working with data, it’s crucial to be organized, or you could easily be overwhelmed. This is why it’s important to include column titles of data as you work through your document.
In Google Sheets, column headers are named A, B, C, and so on by default. While Google Sheets does not allow these header names to be changed, the first row (A1, B1, C1, etc.) is typically reserved for adding column headings. This article shows how to name columns in Google Sheets.
Naming a Column in Google Sheets
We assume you still haven’t added any column names and only added your raw data. Create a new header row following these steps:
- Click on any cell of the first row of your worksheet.
Select any cell from the 1st row. - From the Insert menu in the toolbar, click on the Rows option. From the sub-menu, choose Insert 1 row above.
Click on Insert 1 row above option from the Insert menu. - In the inserted row, enter the column names according to your preference. In the example, I labeled the column names First Name, Last Name, and Height.
Designing Column Titles
To make the column titles more noticeable, you can make the column title’s text bold, increase the text size, change font colors, or change the background color of the column title.
Bold text
Select the column titles and press Ctrl + B (for Windows users) or Cmd + B (for macOS users)
Text Size
Select the column titles. Click on the Font size dropdown from the toolbar and choose the size.
Font Color
Select the column titles. Click on the Text color dropdown from the toolbar and choose the color.
Background Color
Select the column titles. Click on the Fill color dropdown from the toolbar and choose the color.
Freezing Column Titles
Freezing the row containing the column titles makes navigating the worksheet much easier. The frozen row is locked in place; it is always visible, no matter how far you scroll down. To make your column title freeze, do the following:
- First, select the column title row.
Select the entire header row. - Select the View option in the toolbar, then click on Freeze. From the sub-menu, click on Up to 1 row.
Click on Up to row 1
Now, when you scroll vertically, the column title you chose to freeze remains in view no matter where you are in the spreadsheet.
