labelling points in xy chart

[simonc]

I am using an XY chart as a simple map. The data are in
three columns of a worksheet - X coordinate, Y coordinate
and Point ID. On my chart I want to plot the points and
have each labelled with the point ID. At the moment I can
only make the labels show either the X coordinate value
(if I select Show label in the Data Labels tab) or the Y
coordinate value (if I select Show value).

How can I automatically link the label text to the column
with Point IDs?

Grateful for any help.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
have a look at the following add-ins which will do this for you as
Excel does not support this automatically
http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/charttools.htm
http://www.appspro.com/utilities/Labeler.asp

 

[DDM]

Simon, I'm goint to take a HUGE leap here. Knowing nothing about XY charts
beyond what I've taught myself in the last 10 minutes, I'm going to ask (and
bear with me if this is a stupid question): Is your PointID column to the
*left* of your X and Y coordinate columns? When I set up a little sample
with my columns in the left-to-right order PointID, X, and Y, I was able to
achieve the result I think you're looking for by selecting Show Label on the
Data Labels tab.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Sounds like you've made a Line chart.

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

 

[DDM]

Really? ChartWizard says it's an XY Scatter (whatever that is). All I see is
dots (with PointID labels, btw) all over the place! ;-)

 

[Jon Peltier]

I just meant that getting text labels on Scatter points isn't a native
Excel capability, unless you mean the series name, which became
available in XP. But that labels all points in a series with the same
text label.

The Line-Scatter confusion is a common problem, and I just assumed...

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

 

[DDM]

Thanks, Jon. When I read Simon's original post, I took it to mean that he
wanted to display the values from his Point ID column next to the scatter
points in his chart. When, as a learning exercise, I set up some columns of
data in the left-right order "X Coord" "Y Coord" "Point ID," and created a
chart, I got results similar to what Simon described. I noticed, though,
that when I moved the "Point ID" column to the left of "X Coord," I was able
to get the Point IDs to appear next to the scatter points (but I guess those
are the series names, as you point out, and it was the case that the same
Point ID appeared next to both the X and Y value from the same table row,
but I took that to be what Simon was looking for).

In any case, it was an interesting learning exercise for me. Love your site.
My link to it and mini-review are here:
www.ddmcomputing.com/links/websites.htm#xlsites. Please keep the additions
to the Chart Tutorial coming.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately with everything else going on, I have
had precious little time to update the web site. I haven't added to the
core tutorial section in too many months. I need a sabbatical.

- Jon