[Solved] Problem with data labels in charts

[jchajecki]

Hi. I'm trying to set up a chart with 3 data sets but I am having problems with getting the labels to display correctly.

In order to illustrate the issue I have created a simple spreadsheet with 3 data sets like this:

Code: Select all

A 	A1   2   2
  	A2	2	4
  	A3	2	6
B 	B1	4	2
  	B2	4	4
  	B3	4	6
C	 C1	6	2
  	C2	6	4
  	C3	6	6

Column 1 shows the data set name.
Column 2 shown the label for each data item
Columns 3 and 4 are the X/Y values for each data item

I have created an XY scatter chart with shows the 9 points on an XY grid as expected. I have assigned each group of 3 rows of data to 3 data series (A, B and C) and used the letter in column 1 and on the first row of each group for the data series name. I was hoping to display the correct label in column 2 next to each data item. The Data Series dialogue will only let me assign ONE group of labels the whole chart (the series specified stays the same regardless of the data series selected) so all I can do is specify the entire column 2. However when I then go and check Show Category in the Data Labels tab for each data series, the chart displays the data labels, but, it starts with A1 - A3 and repeats this for all 3 data sets instead of displaying A1-A3 for data set A, B1-B3 for data set B and C1-C3 for data set C.

Is these any way to specify the labels for each data series and get it to display the labels correctly for each set please?

[FJCC]

I'm not sure I understand your problem, so I apologize if I'm off target. Does the attached file do what you want? I put each data series is a different column. The legend then shows the series names and the data labels provide labels for each point.

[jchajecki]

FJCC,

You evidently understood my problem well as that is exactly what I require although I don't understand why OO Calc should require each set of Y axis data to be in a separate column. I now need to duplicate that with my actual data which has some 2000 rows but fortunately only 6 or 7 groups so hopefully it won't be too unwieldly. Could be very messy otherwise. Anyone know whether this a limitation of Calc or a bug?

Thanks for you help.

John.

[FJCC]

I experimented a bit with this and have not found a way to achieve the desired labeling with the data as originally arranged. I did find that Calc does support multiple groups of data labels in a limited way. If you have one data series of x and y values arranged in adjacent columns, you can assign data labels in various blocks of cells if you enter the cell addresses for the labels by typing them into the box in the Data Ranges dialog. Multiple cell ranges for labels can also be typed in if you have multiple series with the y values in different columns. If your multiple series are confined to two columns, then the I can't get multiple cell ranges for labels to work. I'm sure I haven't tried all possible methods.

[jchajecki]

FJCC, thanks for taking the time to experiment. I did also for quite some and your results are similar to my own. I could not find any other way. I've been able to arrange the 2000 or so rows of data with the Y series spread across 8 columns in a similar way to your example. At first I couldn't replicate your result until I realised that I had to select the entire, Y column each time, not just the cells with data in them, to make this work. I did not need the labels on for all 2000 data points, just the first 4 data sets so I simply turned on only those that were required. The result was successfull and I now get the correct labels. Once again, thanks for solving this one for me.