SubscribeChange Data Labels in Charts to Whatever you want [Quick Tip]
We all know that Chart Data Labels help us highlight important data points. When you “add data labels” to a chart series, excel can show either “category” , “series” or “data point values” as data labels.
But what if you want to have a data label that is altogether different, like this:
You can change data labels and point them to different cells using this little trick.
First add data labels to the chart (Layout Ribbon > Data Labels)- Define the new data label values in a bunch of cells, like this:
- Now, click on any data label. This will select “all” data labels. Now click once again. At this point excel will select only one data label.
- Go to Formula bar, press = and point to the cell where the data label for that chart data point is defined.
- Repeat the process for all other data labels, one after another. See the screencast.
Points to note:
- This approach works for one data label at a time. So if you have a large chart, you are in for a lot of clicks and manic mouse maneuvering.
- That brings us to Rob Bovey’s Chart Labeler Excel Add-in. This free tool can automate the whole custom chart labeling for you.
- If you want more formatting options, consider adding text boxes and point them to cells instead. See the smart chart legends post.
Share your Chart Formatting Tricks:
What are your favorite chart formatting tricks? My favorite tricks are using text boxes to add rich formatting to charts (example here) and messing with fonts and colors (some rules here).
What about you?
Recently in Charting:
- Use Paste Special to Speed up Chart Formatting
- Use Script font to make better incell charts
- Make a Thermo-meter Chart in Excel
- and many more …
| ||||
|
| ||||
|
Leave a Reply
 |
How to Get “Either-Or” Condition in Data Validation? | Data Tables & Monte Carlo Simulations in Excel – A Comprehensive Guide |  |
At Chandoo.org, I have one goal, "to make you awesome in excel and charting". This blog is started in 2007 and today has 450+ articles and tutorials on using excel, making better charts. 
41 Responses to “Change Data Labels in Charts to Whatever you want [Quick Tip]”
I sometime use a dummy data series plotted on the secondary axis. You can then set the secondary category labels to use the range with the custom labels text.
Apply Category data labels to the dummy series.
Personally, I think this is a great tip. I like the idea of automating the process, although I’m always hesitant to use “add-ons.” It seems like it would be a fairly straightforward VBA project. In fact, you could probably use VBA to automatically make the labels themselves, so you didn’t need the source cells. I’ll look into this the next time I’m needing custom labels.
You can use the same trick to relabel axes – this is great if you’re using the offset formula with a dropdown to create a dynamic chart = just change the axes title as well using an offset.
I know this is but an excel trick, but …
I think I’d rather see two charts: one with the numbers as displayed and another with the %change between the 2 months. Better yet would be to display the last several months as line charts. Change always needs to be seen in the context of history.
hi guys, this works if you have a single series.
what about stacked bar (multiple series)?
e.g. i have March and April series stacked-bar chart. i’d like to label the TOTAL of both months, but the data label should be [outside-end] of April’s bar.
[March]-[April]-[data label of the total for Mar+Apr]
normal labelling dont offer [outside-end] data labelling. Rob Bovey’s Chart Labeler also doesnt offer this.
any ideas?
@David: You can add a dummy series to the stacked bar and stacked it on top of the last month. Now, make the dummy series transparent (no fill, no border) and set labels to it (at inside end). Use the technique in this post to customize labels and you should be good to go.
ahhh yes, that’s what I’m thinking of too
cheers!
Brill tip….as usual!
@David,
you can also calculate the totals in your data, then add the total series to the chart, move it to the secondary Y axis, change the chart type to a column (not stacked column) chart. Then add data labels for the total series, which you can now place to the outside end of the columns. Finally format the total series to no fill and no line to make it invisible.
cheers, teylyn
@David… Teylyns tip is better than mine. With that you dont have to fix the axis scales.
@Andy & @Alex… good additions
@Bill: Of course using separate charts is even better. My intention is to show the trick related to chart label customization.
@Teylyn… Excellent. Here is your donut
thx teylyn
chandoo, i prefer adding another dummy series; BUT with small value (and clickable!) so that it won’t force change the axis scale
anyhow, both methods have its merits
Dont know if anybody has come across this before, but I’ve been using it (well, my own slightly modified version of the code) to add labels to charts and it works very very well
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914813
-Dan
[...] Chandoo bring us yet another quick tip on how to add data labels to the chart. [...]
chandoo, how do u ‘break’ the data labels into 2 lines (like those displayed on the chart)?
e.g. 400 (5%) ==> 400 (5%)
David,
You can press Alt+Enter after 400 to get data lables in 2 lines.
How do you do to brake labels into 2 lines if the link is a concatenate? Alt+Enter doesn’t work in this case… Any ideas? Thanks.
Got it!!!
I might be of help for someone, so here it goes:
Just place CHAR(10) were you want the break and that’s it!
E.g.: =A1&CHAR(10)&A2
My full formula to keep format is:
=TEXT(A1,”0,000″)&CHAR(10)&”(“&TEXT(A2,”0.0%”)&”)”, were A1 is my amount and A2 my growth %.
Thanks Chandoo for such a wonderful tip….
wow, that works Pipo
thanx!
Thanks dude – making my charts look good – management thinks im the bomb!!
really very useful…Thanks a lot….
[...] How to change data labels in charts to whatever you want [...]
So, now that there are custom data labels, is there any way to change the text justification? All I ever see is centered text but I would like to have mine left justified. Whatever the formatting is in the linked cell doesn’t get reflected in the chart. In your example it works OK since there is a number (short length) and then a percent change (longer length). The centering looks OK there. I am working on a time line and would like the labels in more of a list format rather than centered. Thanks.
Hello Chandoo.. Great tip.. Would i be able to color the arrow using formula itself??
Hi Chandoo,
didn’t know that we can do that ^^. Out of the topic. is it possible to make the axis label interactive as well. We can change the data through name range but I can seem to find the answer for axis label. I am trying to make interactive bar chart with different number of data and different axis label (name of region for example).
@Fitriadi
Put the text in A1 you want as your Axis label
Select the Axis Label you want to change
With it selected click in the formula Bar at the top of the screen and type =A1
Select with the Tick to the left of the formula bar
Change reference to suit
@Hui
Hi Hui, thanks for the quick reply. But I think what you mean is axis title, because i cant seem to click on the formula bar when i click on the axis label. I did able to do it with the axis title though.
I have a chart with two axis on the X axis I have the date on the two Y axis i have bar and line data. The Line data shows from 30 to 70 in increments of 10. I want the 70 to show a label £ without putting in a text box eg £70 and none of the other figures will have the £ sign. Is there a formula or a quick way in Excel 2003 to do this.
Many thnaks
@John
Select the X-Axis you want to format
Right Click, Format Axis
Add a Custom Number format of “£”0
Thanks Hui but that changes all the values to have the pound sign I only want one value to show with the £ sign. And these values are on the y axis. There are two y axis.
You can’t format a single entry or component of an axis text
Easiest way would be to add a text box to the chart
“Formula used to create £ symbol on secondary scale (i.e. not text box)”
This is part of the test I have to do Hui so you must be able to do it otherwise it wouldn’t be part of the test.
I am at a complete loss on this one I have tried all the methods you have described.
John
@John
Select the X-Axis you want to format
Right Click, Format Axis
use the following Custom Number format
[<70]“”;[=70]“£”0;;
Brilliant I had to ammend slightly but spot on.
[<70]general;[=70]£0;;
Thank you so much Hui.
John
What great info! This and other tips on this site are awesome. Thanks Chandoo!
This is awesome! Saved my day
Has someone figured out how to do this in VBA code? This is exactly what I need.
How do I format labels in a scatter plot with over 200 labels to change. Is there no way of creating a column with the labels you want so that excel automatically includes these labels instead of the ‘series labels’
Hi Chandoo
I used the XY Labeler and it worked for me.
Thanks
Vipul
It’s Very Helpful to me ~ Thank A lot.
Hi,
Great info!! I want to know if it possible to hide a specific data label except when the cursor is in the data.
For instance, I have a lot of wells plotted in a XY chart with a map as a background, the x and y are the coordinates of each well. However, when I want to know a specific well in the chart is so hard to find it, I need to check the coordinates in the chart and then find to which well correspond those coordinates. If I put all the well label the chart looks messy.
What do you recommend me??
Thank you in advance
@Itzel
I would add another series which highlighted a specific well
Add a Drop Down which lists all the wells
Using the Cell Link from the drop down, Retrieve the X & Y co-ords for the well
Plot the well as a Marker using a new series on the chart
It may be worth while you uploading a copy of the file, Refer: http://chandoo.org/forums/topic/posting-a-sample-workbook