So, I’ve created a chart in Excel. It is a simple line chart.
It’s plotting data from 3 columns, no small feat for a Neandertal like me.
My problem is, I’d like to see the actual daily value listed by the line.
I can see how to insert a text box or callout box, but I can’t populate them with data from a particular cell.
I could rename the series in my legend, but of course that would negate knowing which line represents what. And, I can’t add a second legend.
Just imagine following the Dow for example. Today’s value will be x, from cell A5.
How can I show that value in the chart itself?
My second, and probably easier problem, is that my horizontal (Y) axis won’t show the dates I’ve given it. My first data column is 1 April through 31 December. If I select anything from 1 April to 22 Jun, I get exactly my selection across the bottom as my time frame. If I select any more, say to the end of the year, nothing changes. 23 Jun is some kind of magic cut-off. Is there a 3 month default somewhere I can change?
How come Excel thinks it’s the boss of me, huh? I’m giving it data, and **it **decides what it will or won’t show? That’s pretty arrogant software, ya ask me.
Please enlighten me, o gifted ones…
What version of Excel are you using? Look up “Data Labels” in Help to see where to turn this on. If you enable Data Labels for the series (it sounds like you have multiple series) the value for each point will be shown on the chart.
Your horizontal axis is the X axis; vertical is Y.
I don’t know why it would arbitrarily cut your dates off in June. If you right-click on the X axis you can bring up options that allow you to set the minimum, maximum, and intervals. The exact sequence varies with the version of Excel. Did I ask what version of Excel you are using?
You don’t know the half of it, buddy. Excel has all but fried my computer, and it’s spent the last two hours just calculating a document. But anyway.
CookingWithGas is correct–you need to right-click on the chart and select “Data Labels”. If you’ve included a label at the top of each column, that label should be selectable in the Data Labels wizard. Just pick the Date column to go in the Horizontal (X) axis, and the other two columns to go in the Vertical (Y) axis, and it should be good. Just make sure to include the column label when you select the chart area. That simple thing has tripped me up more than once.
I’m racking my brains too as to why your chart stops at June 22. If I’m counting correctly, that means you have 73 data points in your chart up to that point. There’s nothing in any version of Excel AFAIK that would cut a chart off at 73 data points. Try Cooking’s suggestion of re-setting the X axis min/max/intervals.
I did find the data labels by clicking on the line itself.
The problem is it plots the values right up the line; I can find no choice for just the last or latest value.
It will do that if you use a column, but I kinda wanted simple lines…
I’ll go delve into the axis options now, and see what happens.
