How can I make Numbers respect the row and column locks in an Excel workbook opened in Numbers???

Question

I have a Windows server app that generates Excel workbooks to be emailed to political campaign volunteers to be loaded into Numbers on an iPad, edited, then emailed back to be posted to the server database.  There are two problems encountered:
1.  The Excel workbook has the first row (column headings) and first column (route identifier) of cells locked, so that they will not scroll off the screen, but Numbers doesn't respect the locks, so when the user scrolls horizontally or vertically, the column headings and/or the route identifier scroll off the screen.
2.  The Excel workbook has pop-up "tool-tip" type comments in certain column headings in order to provide the user with the acceptable entries for those columns, but Numbers does not respect those.  When the user touches any of the commented column heading cells, a context menu appears instead of the comment.
What must I do in the Excel workbook sheets, or what settings can be made in Numbers to correct the above?

Answer 1

I imported a Numbers '09 file into Numbers on the iPad.  All comments were removed during import. Frozen header row and column were retained.
Thank you for your responses I must ask, however, when you refer to "importing" the Excel file, are you referring to a two step process whereby the Excel file is first converted by some other process into Numbers format, then opened in the Numbers application - which is what I have to do in my PC application to generate the Excel file, and reverse that process to convert the Excel back into my database format - or are you simply referring to opening the file in Numbers as "importing" it?  And please excuse any ignorance, as I'm not at all familiar with Apple's terminologies.  In fact, I don't own an iPad myself, but rather I have to depend on one of my clients to do the testing for me.
I imported an XLSX file into Numbers on the iPad.  The file used "freeze panes" to "freeze" the first column and row. Only warning on import was that it changed fonts. It imported without the first row and column frozen and with no comments. Nothing I can do about the missing comments but it was a simple matter to turn the first column & row into headers and freeze them.
Unfortunately this would not be an efficient  solution, since the end users are, for the most part, elderly political campaign volunteers who are fairly computer illiterate.  These workbooks are actually canvassing lists - known as walklists.  Their purpose is for the volunteers to interview voters, record the results of the interviews, and post the results to a database, which provides the campaigns with valuable strategizing capabilities.  Also, these workbooks have multiple pages - as many as 10 or more.  and from what I infer from the above, the setting changes would have to be made on each page.
My whole intent in developing this iPad/Tablet methodology was to significantly reduce volunteer's work - which is a recruitment benefit - and eliminate paper.  While the latter would be accomplished, the former would not, and in fact would tend to increase it.  It's necessary to keep the first row - column headings - and the first column - the route identifier - from scrolling off the page, so that the volunteer won't have to keep scrolling up and down and right and left to know what the data are.
Conclusion: Comments are not supported on the iPad version of Numbers.  Frozen headers are not imported from Excel but can be recreated easily.
I was previously directed to the Apple website  http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/apps-by-apple/numbers.html which extols the wonders of the Numbers application.  About halfway down the page there's a section regarding, "Sliders steppers and pop-ups".  The web page states that pop-ups can be set up but, being a marketing site, gives no indication whatsoever as to how it's done.  I was hoping someone could tell my if there's any way to carry them over from an Excel file.