Embedding an annotation or a comment to a chart in Excel 2007

[Guest]

Hello,

Is it possible to add/embed an annotation or a comment to an Excel 2007
Chart.

For example, have a chart and then hover over a part of the chart and a
comment pops out (in a bubble or something).

Thanks.

P.S. Is it possible to do this in Office 2003?

 

[Jon Peltier]

You cannot edit the text in these popups ("chart tips"). You can add a text
box or data label to the chart, which is always visible, or you could write
some code that makes a text box visible sometimes and hidden other times.
Tushar Mehta has a utility that accomplishes this for you. Look for Chart
hover Label on his web site (http://tushar-mehta.com).

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
774-275-0064
208-485-0691 fax
(e-mail address removed)
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

 

[Guest]

Thanks a lot for the reply Jon.

I need to do this in source code. Basically, I am dynamically generating
charts using the .NET --> Excel COM APIs based upon data from a SQL database.

Will Tushar's utility allow me to call it from source code?

Thanks.

 

[Jon Peltier]

I do not think Tushar's code has the broad capabilities you need.

Do you need something to pop up when the cursor moves over a chart element?
Could you back up the functionality until all you require is a static data
label or text box?

- Jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Let me give you an example scenario. Currently we have three primary
components to an Excel page that contains a chart:

1. The Chart Title
2. A Text Box with additional information about the chart in it
3. The Chart.

Lately though the text box (2) has become very unwieldly with data. So much
so that many times it is so large that it squishes the chart very small. What
we want to do is remove that text box and basically have that information
stored somewhere such that when a user hovers or clicks somewhere on the
chart (maybe it is a specific place on the chart or something), that
information shows up in some sort of pop up way or dynamic text box or
something. We don't want to have to put this text box information on another
Excel page -- we want it all contained on the same page.

Make sense?

Thanks.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Something easy you could do is place the chart and textbox on the sheet,
with the textbox in front of the chart. Put a smaller textbox or shape that
shows a simple "?" or "Chart Info". Assign a macro to this small shape that
makes the large textbox visible, and assign a macro to the large shape that
makes the large shape invisible.

- Jon