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Allow for personalised data labels in XY scatter plots

In Excel 2016 for Mac there is no way to (easily) insert personalised labels to an XY scatter plot (like in the 2013 version for Windows, for instance...). In the Windows version (which I know best) there was the possibility to choose values for the labels that were not part of the XY plot itself but that option does not exist for the (2016) Mac version I can modify a few labels manually but with hundreds of point it is very complicated...
I believe this feature is of utmost relevance!!

158 votes
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    Aldino shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
    Accepting Votes  ·  AdminExcel Team [MSFT] (Admin, Office.com) responded  · 

    Thanks for all the support and comments for this suggestion. We will continue to monitor this and prioritize it along with all the other suggestions. We’ve been working to make Excel more consistent between Mac and Windows, as can be seen by the updates over the past several months, which have satisfied several thousand votes on this forum (multi-thread calculation, PivotCharts, modern chart types, new functions, slicers for tables). We are listening to the suggestions, comments and votes, and we will continue to make improvements.

    Steve K [MS Excel]

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    32 comments

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      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Surely a "value from cells" fix can solve this issue?? can't be that hard to put this option that's existed for ages in the Windows version into the Mac version..? Can it?

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Why the **** are both excel for mac and windows different!!!!! THEY SHOULD BE THE EXACT SAME FUNCTIONALITY!

      • tbone commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        In Excel 2011 I selected "series name" for the label and then manually entered the correct names. Quicker than the macro for small data sets

      • Rick Lawrence commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        The only work around I have found is to crank up my old IMac with Office 2008 (the last of the good Office Suites for Mac) to be able to put data labels on scatter plots. In fact there are many "standard" Excel operations, missing or so time consuming in Office 365, that I have to do this for. How crazy is that.

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        The lack of this basic feature renders XY scatter plots essentially useless. Very disappointing that there hasn't been any movement on this simple feature request for over 2 years.

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        "Under review" since Nov 2015 and still no solution to what is clearly a necessary feature for a graphing program? Microsoft, how hard can this be?

      • drew commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        pretty simple fix if you aren't afraid to use a macro. do not fear - try it - just follow the steps, and it will be easy.
        Steps are here (I trust microsoft): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/213750/how-to-use-a-macro-to-add-labels-to-data-points-in-an-xy-scatter-chart

        but the steps are written for windows, so here's the MAC keyboard version. and it's even easier than described there. Get the macro into your spreadsheet first:
        Step 1: copy and paste their code into clipboard. Then go to menu bar-
        Tools/Macro/Visual Basic Editor. Click on "Microsoft Excel Objects" folder icon and select "This workbook". To the right is a blank area to paste the code. Then File/Close. That's it for the macro.

        Step 2: build your XY scatter chart. The only condition is that your data must be set up as 3 adjacent columns. A pain, but that's the way it goes. So - your XY scatter data is in columns 2 and 3.
        Step 3: click away from the chart, then click it again ("select it").
        Step 4: In menu bar, select "Tools", "Macro", "Macros...", and select/run the macro (name is extracted from the first line of the code in step 1).
        If all works correct, your XY data point now have labels next to them, taken from column 1.

        Finally, if you edit/change the labels (not the data), you have to re-run the macro.

      • x commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Yet another annoying difference between mac excel and windows. 2 years behind and counting.

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I need this too! Why has something so useful been removed? This is why people hate 'upgrading' when in reality its a downgrade in functionality.

      • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        You work at microsoft dude. Don't act like you care at all about what users think. You only have a paycheck due to the legacy value of products like excel. That was two years ago and you've done nothing. The world would be a better place without microsoft.

      • Kap commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I need this feature. Why can't the features between the mac and windows Office versions be just consistent?

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