Graph issues with Labeling

There is not a lot of explanation in the spreadsheet to explain where the problem occurs (one chart or all charts), or what kind of solution you might expect. Since all but the first chart are stacked column charts, it seems like this kind of problem would be less likely for those, but I can't be certain of that.

As far as I can tell, Excel does not have a built in algorithm for avoiding that kind of data label "log jam". Manually moving the labels works well enough, but automating that process is going to be a challenge.

One idea -- evaluate the need for data labels. What purpose do the data labels serve? Are they necessary to the message of the chart?

Another idea, instead of data labels inside of the plot area, would you consider a data table at the bottom of the chart? http://www.ehow.com/how_2272792_add-...cel-chart.html

This would only apply to the first chart (line + column combination). Would you consider a column + scatter combination chart instead? Using a scatter chart type for the line series would add an "x" component to plotting those points. You could then adjust that x component so that, for example, the red/green series is on the left side of each column, the gray series is in the center of each column, and the black series is on the right side of each column. There should be less opportunity for the data labels to overlap.