Data Labels on Bar Charts

[Ed Kratz]

In Excel 2000 I was able to show data labels for bars that
exceeded my Y Axis, either min or max. In Excel 2003 the
labels don't show for these values. I only need to show
values when a number is greater then the Axis, for example
if my Y axis is 6% and my value is 12% I need to show a
label. If my value is less than 6% my Y scale is
sufficient to figure out what the value is. Is this a bug
in Excel 2003? If so, is there a workaround? I tried it on
several machines, and I have over sixty reports that use
this chart configuration.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Ed -

That was one of the rare changes MS made to its charting in XP: they
fixed the bug that allowed labels to appear outside the plot area. I
never knew it was a bug, so I treated it like a feature, and several of
my tricks relied on it. (So I guess the fix is a bug to me.)

There are a couple things you could do. One is to stop the bars at the
extent of the axis, and change the label to 12%. Another is to add a
series to the chart, change the series to a line chart, and disappear it
by double clicking, and setting None for lines and markers. The values
for this series are the minimum of the bar height or the axis height,
and the labels are the values of the bar heights. Use a third party
addin like Rob Bovey's Chart Labeler (http://appspro.com) or John
Walkenbach's Chart Tools (http://j-walk.com) to use the range of cells
with the bar heights to label the line series.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

 

[Ed Kratz]

Thanks Jon

I guess the real answer for me is to revert back to Excel 2000 for these reports. I appreciate the suggestions, but as I mentioned I have over 60 reports, each one has 6-20 of these charts. I don't have the manpower to make these changes. I also don't want to spend money on another product (Office wasn't exactly cheap) because MS has 'fixed bugs'.