asked on

internal margins on chart data labels excel 2010

Hi Experts,

The options are greyed out when you select Format data labels / Alignment. As shown in my image, I would like to move my data labels up so that they are more visible. They are already vertically aligned to 'top'. I thought I could adjust the top internal margin, but this option is not accessible in Excel 2010.

I really don't want to put in text boxes as they skew when I pdf the document (which is requirement for this report).

I cannot find an answer on google, just a lot of complaints about Microsoft disabling the options...is there anything I can do to resolve my issue?

Thanks!
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Ingeborg Hawighorst (Microsoft MVP / EE MVE)

Hello,

sorry, but here is bad news. Formatting of data labels and some other aspects of chart text labels is either not possible or a real pain. In the case you describe it's not possible. Excel does not have any handles or parameters to manipulate the format of the data labels.

This has been a bone of contention for a lot of people for quite some time. If it is any consolation: You are not alone with your frustration.

But, as it stands right now, there is no solution. What you describe simply cannot be done in Excel 2010 charts.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Cheers, teylyn

regmigrant

Here's a link to a very faint ray of hope and I'm only posting it blind because there is no direct solution available for regular chart functionality (apologies in advance to the mods).

http://www.get-digital-help.com/2013/03/13/custom-data-labels-in-a-chart/

SOLUTION

Ingeborg Hawighorst (Microsoft MVP / EE MVE)

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regmigrant

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Sacha Walter

ASKER

Thanks for answering, at least I won't keep trying to look for a solution : )

-Polak

Just came across this question, this sucks, I'm having tons of scale problems with "Running total in" lines on top of bar charts. I don't want to plot the running total on a secondary axis because I think that's confusing. All I wanna do for the line that is 10x the scale of any of the other bars or running line totals is have it go off the chart and then make the margin something crazy like 4" and bump down the actual value back into the visible scale. Ugh microsoft why!

Katrina Armstrong

I know this is now years out of date but I just found a really easy fix for this! Stick an extra line of data on the top and bottom with the data label <apostrophe> <space> <space> so that it shows up as blank and then zero for the data. You then add the extra lines into your data, delete the spurious zeros from the visible chart and hey presto you have a proper width on your top and bottom bars!