Data Label Trick

A trick for data labels so that you can link the data label name to a cell within the spreadsheet

• 01:42
• Skill Level: 6
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Data Label Trick

One of the problems with data labels is that it sometimes forces you to use its data labels. So just to explain what I mean.

Here is our graph – if I right click on the Series and I say Add Data Labels, you’ll see at the moment it has taken the numbers, you don’t have to use the numbers. I am going to right click on the Data Labels and I am going to say Format Data Labels and instead of using a value, maybe I will use a category name and you’ll see what appears here is the month. If I choose Series Name rather, the Series Name pulls through. What happens if I don’t actually want any of those – if I want one of these labels to say this – Journal Entries. What I can do, is I can activate the labels – just close it – click on the labels once – (I am just going to go out of there) – if you click on them, they all activate. Choose one, click on it again and you’ll notice that only that one is activated. Without doing anything else, just click “equals =” and notice that your “equals =” has appeared in the formula bar. I am just going to go and link it to that, for example. When I click Enter, notice now that the label I have there is actually coming from this cell. So I can, if I want to, go and change this to be something else. For example – Retrenchments – when I click Enter- notice now that this data label changes. So it is quite a nice way to have your chart interact with your spreadsheet.