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Overlay Line Chart Labels

You are here: Home / Excel Charts / Overlay Line Chart Labels
Overlay Line Chart Labels
November 12, 2019 by Mynda Treacy

Labeling charts is useful if the reader needs to know the exact value for each point.

We can position labels left, right, above, below or overlaid (centred) on the line. However, when you overlay line chart labels it typically looks messy, as you can see below:

overlay line chart labels

This is easily solved with some formatting to achieve this effect:

add formatting

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Steps to Overlay Chart Labels

Step 1: Add Data Labels

add data labels

Step 2: Format Labels

Left click on one of the labels to select them all then press CTRL+1 to open the Format Data Labels pane where you select the paint bucket and set the fill to solid white:

format labels

Step 3: Format Label Text

Click on the Text Options in the Format Data Labels pane and format the font the same colour as the line.

Tip: If the line is a pale colour, choose the next shade darker.

format label text

Repeat for the next series.

Step 4: [Optional] Add a Manual Legend

You can add the built-in legend if you want, however with line charts like this I like to label the end of the lines using text boxes. You’ll find them on the Insert tab of the ribbon:

add a manual legend

Tip: Colour code the legend labels to match the line. Your end result should look like this:

colour code the legend labels

If you find the labels too much, consider only labelling the first and last points:

only label the first and last points

To remove the extra labels, left click on each one twice (slowly so as not to double click), then press the delete key.

Related Topics

Custom Chart Labels

Custom Chart Labels

Overlay Line Chart Labels

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jimmy

    November 12, 2021 at 3:03 am

    Just curious if it’s been presented before. I have two charts that I’d like to overlay. They are line charts, but one is K$ and the other is a record count.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      November 12, 2021 at 8:59 am

      I can’t see why not. They would be different series so they can each have their own formatting.

      Reply
  2. jim

    January 16, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    great ideas Mynda,
    instead of adding a textbox that needs manual alignment for the legend, I select the last label and have it contain the Series name as well, separated by a new line
    and like Jon, I leave the transparency at around 10%

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      January 18, 2020 at 12:19 pm

      Nice touch, Jim. Thanks for sharing 🙂

      Reply
  3. Jon Wittwer

    November 14, 2019 at 11:27 am

    Hi Mynda, Another thing you could do is set the white fill on the data labels to 25% transparency. This lets you see the line graph faintly behind the data label.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      November 14, 2019 at 12:33 pm

      Nice idea, Jon! Thanks for sharing.

      Reply

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