Names as data labels or markers in Excel 2007?

November 28, 2007 9:03 AM

Excel 2007 charting: Can you tell me how to use the name of a point as the data marker or the data label in an X-Y scatter plot?

I have about 75 - 80 points that I'd like to display in an X-Y scatterplot in Excel 2007. Each point has a name consisting of a letter and a number: point A1 is (3, 3), point A2 is (4,6), point B1 is (2,1), etc. My point names are in column A, my x values are in column B, and my y values are in column C. Ideally, instead of a lot of blue diamonds scattered across the chart, I'd like to be the markers to be the point names (A1, A2, etc.). If that's not possible, I'd settle for being able to use the point names as data labels next to the blue diamonds. The only options I seems to be able to access for the data label are the X value, the Y value, or the name of the whole series.

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious--an hour of exploring the help facility and Googling have not been very illuminating. I'd be happy to implement a simple VBA script or macro if that would help.

posted by muhonnin to computers & internet (4 answers total)

I'm not sure how to do it in Excel but it's trivial in Open Office Calc if you're willing to go that route.
posted by euphorb at 10:01 AM on November 28, 2007

Microsoft KB: How to use a macro to add labels to data points in an xy scatter chart or in a bubble chart in Excel
posted by junesix at 11:05 AM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Google for "XY chart labeler" - it's an .xla (Excel add-on) that allows you to specify a range of labels for any series of data. I find it really useful. Here is the link: www.appspro.com/Utilities/ChartLabeler.htm
posted by Parsnip at 2:21 PM on November 28, 2007

Thanks very much for your help. I wound up using the macro from the MS Knowledge Base, but the add-on looks interesting and I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to use it in future.
posted by muhonnin at 5:41 AM on November 29, 2007