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!!
Aldino
shared this idea
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]
39 comments
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Mariel V Haddad
commented
Feature needed! Why is not on MAC? Does not make sense..
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patrick
commented
I vote for this - data labels from cells. Presentation of charts screams out for this possibility, I've been wanting it for 20 years. It's been done before (mentioned above) and is very straight forward to implement. There is even a help page from microsoft for this in a Mac:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/add-or-remove-data-labels-in-a-chart-884bf2f1-2e29-454e-8b42-f467c9f4eb2d
but my version (Excel Mac v16.16.11 it says) doesn't have it. Given these 3 things there is no reason the functionality isn't present (sounds like it was consciously removed) - prioritizing and working on other things sounds like an excuse in this case. -
Lidija
commented
Unbelievable that this cannot be done. So user UN-FRIENDLY.
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Anonymous
commented
Even if it's not logical to display the labels, for instance, because they are very long, it would be great to hover over a dot and see it as with other Excel charts.
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Jimmy
commented
Done using excel for Mac. Using Google Slides since they actually care about their consumers. Looks like this has been an issue for 2 years with no resolution in sight.
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Miguel Muñoz
commented
Here's what's really annoying: Suppose I have 2 columns of numbers, and a third column with labels, and I select all three columns and ask for an XY-scatter chart. I don't get that, I get a box and whisker chart instead. If I had wanted that, I would have asked for it! It makes no sense to give me a different kind of chart. Please fix this. It's been years since I was able to do this, and I don't understand why this is such an obstacle, when you give us plenty of other kinds of charts.
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Mark
commented
Any chance this can be prioritised? Surely this is a simple feature that would make a massive difference.
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Anonymus
commented
Ran into the same problem, this is absolutely frustrating, Microsoft!!!
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Anonymous
commented
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?
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Anonymous
commented
Why the **** are both excel for mac and windows different!!!!! THEY SHOULD BE THE EXACT SAME FUNCTIONALITY!
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Anonymous
commented
Pleeeeeease!
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tbone
commented
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
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Rick Lawrence
commented
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.
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Anonymous
commented
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.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree. I feel annoyed that I can't do this!!!
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Anonymous
commented
"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?
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drew
commented
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-chartbut 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.
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x
commented
Yet another annoying difference between mac excel and windows. 2 years behind and counting.
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Anonymous
commented
REFER TO THE FOLLOWING LINK. IT WORKED FOR ME ON EXCEL FOR MAC. https://excelribbon.tips.net/T011652_Labeling_X-Y_Scatter_Plots.html
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Anonymous
commented
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.