data labels in 2007

Bob -

I had run into problems with code that created charts in Excel 97-2003 not
working in 2007 and having to have major modifications.

For the most part, I've found mostly only minor modifications to be
necessary, sometimes as simple as changing the order of commands. But there
are few charting routines that run in 2007 without modification, so the net
effect is that a lot of redevelopment is required.

Ok if I post your comments on my web site? I'm updating my page on Excel
2007 problems and your comments would add a lot.

I'd prefer if you could run a rough draft by me, so I can validate my claims
and make sure my tone isn't offensive. jon at peltiertech dot com

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


Bob

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
Bob -

Where to begin.... I'll start with some severely limiting changes to the
new dialogs, changes that greatly reduce one's productivity.

In the Format Axis dialog, Old Excel uses option buttons to show the
choices for tick marks and labels, so you can see them all before
selecting, and it takes one click to select. New Excel uses dropdowns, so
it takes one click to see the choices and another to select. We all know
what the choices are, but there aren't that many, so why hide them,
especially since the dialogs have so much blank space?

In the same dialog, in Old Excel if I want to change from an Auto scale
parameter to a Fixed one, I could just click on the number and edit it.
In New Excel I have to click on the Fixed option first, just to enable
the text box. In Old Excel if I click on Auto, the text box is
highlighted, so all I have to do is type the new value, but in New Excel
it's not even activated.

I can't add error bars from the Format Series dialog, I have to go to the
ribbon, and this adds two sets at once (X and Y), and I still have to
visit the dialog to format them and select values.

In Old Excel, I could double click an object (a series, an axis,
whatever), make many changes in the dialog, then when I leave the dialog,
I could Ctrl+Z to undo all changes, or select another object and Ctrl+Y
or F4 to apply all the changes to the selection. In New Excel, double
clicking no longer pops up the Format Object dialog, and if you're lucky,
Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y remember just the last single formatting change you
made; sometimes they don't even remember that little.

So far, no bugs, just poor UI design choices. The source data dialog is
among the most confusing in 2007. I'm working on a charting UI add-in to
alleviate some of these issues.

Bugs, there are a few. If you specify custom error bar values, the syntax
is:

Function ErrorBar(Direction As XlErrorBarDirection, Include As
XlErrorBarInclude, Type As XlErrorBarType, [Amount], [MinusValues])

In Old Excel (i.e., in tons of existing code, even based on the macro
recorder), [Amount] and [MinusValues] are truly optional (note the
brackets), so you need not specify them. In New Excel, these are listed
as optional, but functionally they are NOT optional, so existing code
falls over unless you insert "0" for the optional arguments.

(Also the macro recorder has lost much of its functionality in 2007,
especially involving shapes and charts. But that's a rant for another
day.)

I have a custom chart that has primary and secondary vertical axes. The
primary vertical axis has no labels or ticks, just the line, and I set it
to appear at zero. If the primary horizontal axis goes from negative to
positive, the axis is a nice indicator of zero, like a special gridline.
If the minimum is = zero, the axis merely appears on top of the
secondary axis, and doesn't bother anyone. Except in 2007, it doesn't
appear on top of the other axis, but actually to the left of the tick
labels of the other axis. It took me an hour to figure out what the
vertical line was just inside the left edge of the chart area. This is
probably a feature, because it means coincident axes do not obscure each
other; but a feature that changes functionality also breaks previous
solutions.

Autosizing of textboxes doesn't work as it used to. I don't recall the
details, but one of my first Excel 2007 projects was designing a
workaround for a client.

There are more workarounds I've designed for clients and for myself, but
it's still early, and they are not coming to mind. I still got in a
pretty good rant, though, didn't I?

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______



"Bob Flanagan" wrote in message
...
Jon, could you expand on what you have found? I have a page at my site
I am updating and would like to list some of those problems.

Bob Flanagan

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
I have found dozens of little stupid things like this that don't work
the way they used to. Not exactly bugs, I guess, but not exactly working
right. I think they were rushed into releasing Excel 12 with a
beta-quality charting system. I'm hoping they have a chance to fix it in
Excel 14.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"John" wrote in message
...
disapointing... thx. Brings in a number of problems if worksheet is
locked... etc

"Andy Pope" wrote:

The chart needs to be selected, as Jon stated.
But for me the tooltip appears without the actual series being
selected.

Cheers
Andy

John wrote:
I have both those options checked. Strange... I actually have to
select the
series and then hover... which I don't want to have to do

"Andy Pope" wrote:


Hi,

Check the options,
Show chart element names on hover
Show data point values on hover

Office button Excel Options Advanced Display section.

Cheers
Andy

John wrote:

In 2003 I used to be able to hover over a data point on a chart
and it would
give me the value... in 2007 it seems I am not able to do that...
is that
correct? how can I see the data point value on my chart without
double
clicking on it... want to just hover over it

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info


--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info

will do!

Bob

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
Bob -

I had run into problems with code that created charts in Excel 97-2003
not working in 2007 and having to have major modifications.

For the most part, I've found mostly only minor modifications to be
necessary, sometimes as simple as changing the order of commands. But
there are few charting routines that run in 2007 without modification, so
the net effect is that a lot of redevelopment is required.

Ok if I post your comments on my web site? I'm updating my page on Excel
2007 problems and your comments would add a lot.

I'd prefer if you could run a rough draft by me, so I can validate my
claims and make sure my tone isn't offensive. jon at peltiertech dot com

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


Bob

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
Bob -

Where to begin.... I'll start with some severely limiting changes to the
new dialogs, changes that greatly reduce one's productivity.

In the Format Axis dialog, Old Excel uses option buttons to show the
choices for tick marks and labels, so you can see them all before
selecting, and it takes one click to select. New Excel uses dropdowns,
so it takes one click to see the choices and another to select. We all
know what the choices are, but there aren't that many, so why hide them,
especially since the dialogs have so much blank space?

In the same dialog, in Old Excel if I want to change from an Auto scale
parameter to a Fixed one, I could just click on the number and edit it.
In New Excel I have to click on the Fixed option first, just to enable
the text box. In Old Excel if I click on Auto, the text box is
highlighted, so all I have to do is type the new value, but in New Excel
it's not even activated.

I can't add error bars from the Format Series dialog, I have to go to
the ribbon, and this adds two sets at once (X and Y), and I still have
to visit the dialog to format them and select values.

In Old Excel, I could double click an object (a series, an axis,
whatever), make many changes in the dialog, then when I leave the
dialog, I could Ctrl+Z to undo all changes, or select another object and
Ctrl+Y or F4 to apply all the changes to the selection. In New Excel,
double clicking no longer pops up the Format Object dialog, and if
you're lucky, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y remember just the last single formatting
change you made; sometimes they don't even remember that little.

So far, no bugs, just poor UI design choices. The source data dialog is
among the most confusing in 2007. I'm working on a charting UI add-in to
alleviate some of these issues.

Bugs, there are a few. If you specify custom error bar values, the
syntax is:

Function ErrorBar(Direction As XlErrorBarDirection, Include As
XlErrorBarInclude, Type As XlErrorBarType, [Amount], [MinusValues])

In Old Excel (i.e., in tons of existing code, even based on the macro
recorder), [Amount] and [MinusValues] are truly optional (note the
brackets), so you need not specify them. In New Excel, these are listed
as optional, but functionally they are NOT optional, so existing code
falls over unless you insert "0" for the optional arguments.

(Also the macro recorder has lost much of its functionality in 2007,
especially involving shapes and charts. But that's a rant for another
day.)

I have a custom chart that has primary and secondary vertical axes. The
primary vertical axis has no labels or ticks, just the line, and I set
it to appear at zero. If the primary horizontal axis goes from negative
to positive, the axis is a nice indicator of zero, like a special
gridline. If the minimum is = zero, the axis merely appears on top of
the secondary axis, and doesn't bother anyone. Except in 2007, it
doesn't appear on top of the other axis, but actually to the left of the
tick labels of the other axis. It took me an hour to figure out what the
vertical line was just inside the left edge of the chart area. This is
probably a feature, because it means coincident axes do not obscure each
other; but a feature that changes functionality also breaks previous
solutions.

Autosizing of textboxes doesn't work as it used to. I don't recall the
details, but one of my first Excel 2007 projects was designing a
workaround for a client.

There are more workarounds I've designed for clients and for myself, but
it's still early, and they are not coming to mind. I still got in a
pretty good rant, though, didn't I?

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______



"Bob Flanagan" wrote in message
...
Jon, could you expand on what you have found? I have a page at my site
I am updating and would like to list some of those problems.

Bob Flanagan

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
I have found dozens of little stupid things like this that don't work
the way they used to. Not exactly bugs, I guess, but not exactly
working right. I think they were rushed into releasing Excel 12 with a
beta-quality charting system. I'm hoping they have a chance to fix it
in Excel 14.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"John" wrote in message
...
disapointing... thx. Brings in a number of problems if worksheet is
locked... etc

"Andy Pope" wrote:

The chart needs to be selected, as Jon stated.
But for me the tooltip appears without the actual series being
selected.

Cheers
Andy

John wrote:
I have both those options checked. Strange... I actually have to
select the
series and then hover... which I don't want to have to do

"Andy Pope" wrote:


Hi,

Check the options,
Show chart element names on hover
Show data point values on hover

Office button Excel Options Advanced Display section.

Cheers
Andy

John wrote:

In 2003 I used to be able to hover over a data point on a chart
and it would
give me the value... in 2007 it seems I am not able to do that...
is that
correct? how can I see the data point value on my chart without
double
clicking on it... want to just hover over it

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info


--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info

"Andy Pope" wrote:

Hi,

Check the options,
Show chart element names on hover
Show data point values on hover

Office button Excel Options Advanced Display section.

Cheers
Andy

John wrote:
In 2003 I used to be able to hover over a data point on a chart and it would
give me the value... in 2007 it seems I am not able to do that... is that
correct? how can I see the data point value on my chart without double
clicking on it... want to just hover over it

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info