How can I quickly change the Series names in the legend?

**dmasters4919** · 11-12-2015, 03:06 PM

I have 24 series name "Series 1, Series 2, Series 3..." etc.

I would prefer them to be named "Hour 1, Hour 2, Hour 3...". I have those labels in a column adjacent to the data, but I can only edit the Series names one at a time by clicking the "Select Data" button, and clicking Edit on each individual series name, then selecting a Range to rename it. I would prefer to select the entire range at one time to change them all. Is this possible>

**romperstomper** · 11-13-2015, 05:38 AM

Usually you would just select both columns before you create the chart - make sure that the header above the labels is blank.

**MrShorty** · 11-13-2015, 09:50 AM

My contribution to the discussion:

I would prefer to select the entire range at one time to change them all. Is this possible>

I am almost certain that what you want is entirely possible. I am not aware of a preprogrammed utility that will do this, so it will require developing the VBA ("macro") code for it.

As romperstomper suggests, by far the easiest way is to make sure to include the "series name" in the series at chart creation.

When this needs to be done after chart creation, then one needs to decide which is "harder" or more time consuming. My gut feel has always been (for my own VBA skill level anyway), that it is faster and easier (even if it is tedious), to manually change the series names one at a time (for only 24 data series) than it would be for me to code and debug a macro that would do it for me.

If you judge that it is preferable to write the code, the heart of your code will be understanding how to set the .name property of the .series object
https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/lib.../ff838988.aspx shows how to access an individual series object. Then follow the link to "series object member" at the bottom to pull up the list of properties and methods (including the name property).

The other main concept you will need is "looping". In this case, I think a For Each..Next loop would be most appropriate: https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/lib.../gg264596.aspx

Even though coding this would take much longer for a beginner to write, it should be a simple enough task that, if you were looking for an excuse to introduce yourself to VBA coding, this would be a relatively simple procedure to write and debug and would possibly make a good introduction to VBA coding. In the short term it would be a lot more effort than manually changing the names of each series. In the long term, it would be an opportunity to learn VBA which, in the future, may allow you to simplify much more complex repetitive tasks.