Excel line chart with events labels
Originally published: 31/08/2020 08:17
Publication number: ELQ-95733-1
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Excel line chart with events labels

Line chart of the measure you choose where you can add up to 10 events per month with start and end dates.

Description
Sometimes you want to add qualitative information to a chart line with, for example, revenues. Examples of events could be the calendar (weekend, holiday, exposition, sport event etc.), problems with the distribution, a promotion campaign etc. These events help the audience interpret the chart.

With this chart you can add the measure you prefer (step 1), with one value per date. Then you can add in another table all the events you want (step 2) specifying the event name, the start date, and the end date. You can include up to 10 events per month, and up to 2 years of events (the chart shows monthly data). Then you choose the year and month you want to show in the chart (step 3) since in the previous tables you can add as many as 2 years of events. At this point, you have your chart with the line and the events labels.

The positions of event labels are optimized automatically to prevent them from overlapping. However, you can manually manipulate their positions (step 4). In this last input table, you will notice that there is a column with "Default position". This is a value from 0.05 to 0.95. By default, if labels don't overlap, they use the 0.95 position, which is the nearest to the line (both below and above). Events are alternated below and above the line to improve readability. In the green column "Manual labels position" you can insert a value to modify the positioning. If you leave it blank, the chart takes the default value.

REQUIREMENTS: Excel 2016 or 365 (it doesn't work with previous versions)

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REQUIREMENTS: Excel 2016 or 365 (it doesn't work with previous versions)


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