Ajay over at databison.com just published a very nice implementation of what you are looking for, including the file for download. Here is the link:

http://www.databison.com/?p=669

thanks for your comment and question.

If you ‘hover’ with the mouse over a data point on the chart, Excel will only show the name of the series (’All’ or ‘Displayed 10′) and the values of the two KPIs (x-value and y-value). If I understand your request correctly, you would like to see the name of the item also (in our example the product name).

This is not possible with the version posted for download.

I can think of 2 ways of realizing what you are suggesting:

1. Without VBA

You could use one data series per data point and assign the according product name as the name of the series. If you are hovering over a data point then, Excel will show the name of the series (product name) and the two values. But this would mean that you have to build a chart with 110 different series…

2. Using VBA

You could use Chart.GetChartElement to display additional data (in a text box for example) according to the data point underneath your mouse.

I haven’t checked the internet for a sample file with VBA code, but there is an example for this in John Walkenbach’s book on Excel Charts (including the file on the CD):

http://www.amazon.com/Excel-Charts-John-Walkenbach/dp/0764517643/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223728170&sr=8-1

thanks again for your suggestions and for the discussion you started!

After reading your comments, I think I already understood your suggestion the first time: You would change the name of the data series from ‘Displayed 10′ to ‘TOP 10 KPI X’ where X is the number of the KPI which is the selected sort criterion.

The workbook is meant to be downloaded and used. And of course: please feel free to do with it what you want to do.

But – again – I would not recommend your suggestion for several reasons:

The first reason is the one you already mentioned in your last comment: You do not always see the ‘TOP 10′ because the user might have scrolled down.

Second: The XY scatter chart always shows two KPIs at a time. Naming the data series e.g. ‘TOP 10 KPI 1′ would not be appropriate since the chart shows e.g. KPI 1 and KPI 2.

Third: It is getting even worse if you sort the table by KPI 1 and select KPI 2 and KPI 3 to be displayed in the XY scatter chart. The chart would then show the data of KPI 2 and KPI 3, but the legend would tell ‘TOP 10 KPI 1′. This would be incorrect, misleading and confusing, wouldn’t it?

=”Top 10 “&INDEX(E10:E14,mySortCriteria)

I realise that the table is right above the chart, so you can see how the top 10 is selected, but that’s still what I’d do.