We all know that legend can be added to a chart to provide useful information, color codes etc.
Today we will learn how to make the chart legends smarter so that they provide more meaning and context to the chart, like this:
To make your chart legends legendary, just follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Make a regular chart
Step 2: Create legend messages in separate cells
Now, for the above chart, there are 3 series. So, we need 3 legend messages. Let us say we want to show how much the % change has been since 2005 in each of the three series. The message pattern can be like this:
[arrow symbol] [label] by [% change]
We can find up and down arrow symbols from Insert > Symbol menu.
Let us write a simple formula like this to create the message.
(assuming data is in table B1:D5)
=IF(B5>B1,"up arrow symbol","down arrow symbol")&" Sales by "&TEXT(B5/B1-1,"0%")
Now repeat similar formulas for other 2 series as well.
Step 3: Add three text boxes to the chart area.
This is simple. Select the chart. Now go to Insert > Textbox (ALT+NX in Excel 2007+). Type anything in it.
Now, color the text boxes in such a way that the background colors match chart series fill colors.
Step 4: Assign legend message cells to text boxes
Select first text box. Go to formula bar, press = and then select the first legend message cell. See this screencast to understand.
Repeat the same step for other 2 text boxes
Step 5: Show off your chart
That is all. Now your chart legends are legendary. Go ahead and show off.
Download the example chart and play with it
Click here to download the excel file containing this example. Play with it to understand this trick.
Related Charting Tricks & Ideas:
> Show colors in Chart Labels, Axis Labels
> Show symbols in Chart Labels, Axis
> 5 Chart Formatting Tricks
> More charting tutorials and tips
6 Responses to “Make VBA String Comparisons Case In-sensitive [Quick Tip]”
Another way to test if Target.Value equal a string constant without regard to letter casing is to use the StrCmp function...
If StrComp("yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
' Do something
End If
That's a cool way to compare. i just converted my values to strings and used the above code to compare. worked nicely
Thanks!
In case that option just needs to be used for a single comparison, you could use
If InStr(1, "yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) Then
'do something
End If
as well.
Nice tip, thanks! I never even thought to think there might be an easier way.
Regarding Chronology of VB in general, the Option Compare pragma appears at the very beginning of VB, way before classes and objects arrive (with VB6 - around 2000).
Today StrComp() and InStr() function offers a more local way to compare, fully object, thus more consistent with object programming (even if VB is still interpreted).
My only question here is : "what if you want to binary compare locally with re-entering functions or concurrency (with events) ?". This will lead to a real nightmare and probably a big nasty mess to debug.
By the way, congrats for you Millions/month visits 🙂
This is nice article.
I used these examples to help my understanding. Even Instr is similar to Find but it can be case sensitive and also case insensitive.
Hope the examples below help.
Public Sub CaseSensitive2()
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub CaseSensitive()
If InStr("Look in this string", "look") = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub NotCaseSensitive()
'doing alot of case insensitive searching and whatnot, you can put Option Compare Text
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub