SOLVED

How to change the orientation of all chart column labels simultaneously?

Copper Contributor

Hello :)

How do I change the orientation of column labels all at once, instead of selecting each column individually, (too time consuming...)

Rotating text labels.png

5 Replies

dont all answer at once, 

no I dont think its possible, a little microsoft oversight. Who would want to align all their labels across 100 bars at the same time, nah do it manually because you dont have the time.

best response confirmed by Jitterbug23 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

@Jitterbug23 Please don't be impatient!

A trick you could is this. Create a chart with only one of the series. Add the labels and set the rotation as you desire. Select the entire chart you just created. Ctrl-C. Select the chart that contains all the series and remove all data labels. On the Home ribbon, press Paste, Paste Special..., Formats. The chart should now have labels in the same orientation for all series.

An alternative would be to start with a one series and once you have formatted the labels, add the other series. They will have labels with the orientation.

 

Edit: This seems to work on Mac only. Don't really know why.

Edit 2: On both Windows and Mac, you can format the first series labels, then select the next and press F4. Repeat for all others. Still some work but you don't have to click through all the steps for each and every one.

 

@Riny_van_Eekelen 

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain that Riny,

I made the initial chart with just one series as you suggested, then saved it as a template and applied it to the larger chart, that worked too. 

Below can see the series 1 chart, I saved as template then applied the template to the larger chart.


replicate data labels via template.png

 

For anyone who doesn't know, you save as template by right clicking the chart "save template", 

then to apply you right click any other chart and choose "change chart type", there you will see a TEMPLATES folder in the pop up dialog box with other chart types.

@Jitterbug23 Not very intuitive, is it? But I'm glad I could help sorting this out.

@Riny_van_Eekelen yea thats great, at least there is a way, hopefully they keep improving the efficiency of the design tools i`ve sent feedback. But the templates work great, Excel is always getting better.

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Jitterbug23 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

@Jitterbug23 Please don't be impatient!

A trick you could is this. Create a chart with only one of the series. Add the labels and set the rotation as you desire. Select the entire chart you just created. Ctrl-C. Select the chart that contains all the series and remove all data labels. On the Home ribbon, press Paste, Paste Special..., Formats. The chart should now have labels in the same orientation for all series.

An alternative would be to start with a one series and once you have formatted the labels, add the other series. They will have labels with the orientation.

 

Edit: This seems to work on Mac only. Don't really know why.

Edit 2: On both Windows and Mac, you can format the first series labels, then select the next and press F4. Repeat for all others. Still some work but you don't have to click through all the steps for each and every one.

 

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