Can't change chart data label font attributes

[exceltim]

I have a series of charts in a workbook - initially it was created in Excel 2003, but I re-saved it as an xlsm file in Excel 2010. For some reason I can't change the font attributes of the data labels. Currently the font is Arial, size 6 - whenever I try to change the font size or name nothing happens; for example, if I use the font selector to choose Calibri, after clicking on Calibri the font name stays as Arial. Can anyone help with this? I'm hoping I don't have to remove and add the data labels again, because there are 12 charts, and each data label gets its value from a different cell.

[dilipandey]

Hi exceltim,

Would it be possible for you to upload the sample workbook. thanks.

Regards,
DILIPandey
<click on below * if this helps>

[exceltim]

Thanks for your reply DILIPandey.

I can't upload the workbook because it has confidential data in it.

However, I have found a workaround. As mentioned in my first post, each data label gets a custom value from a cell - for example, the data label for the first point has the formula "=Sheet1!$B$5"; the next data label has the formula "=Sheet1!$B$6" and so on.

If I go into the Format Data Labels dialog box and click the 'Reset Label Text' button, the custom cell values revert back to the data point values, and I can then change the font attributes. It's not ideal, because it means I have to reset the data label text every time I want to change the font size and/or name, and then link each data label back to the relevant cell on Sheet1. Thankfully I've been able to automate part of this process in code.

I wonder if this is a bug in Excel 2010 - I don't remember having this problem in Excel 2003, but I no longer have the 2003 version on my work computer so I can't test it.

[Andy Pope]

On a test file I was able to change the font of data labels linked directly to cells.

Try relinking the data labels once the file format has been converted.

[exceltim]

Unfortunately as soon as I have linked each data label to a cell, I'm prevented from changing the font. Thankfully I have been able to write a macro that automates the linking of the data labels to cells.

[xlrotor]

Hello Andy,
I've been encountering this data label font issue now and then. If you want a sample of it, here is a file plagued with this problem.
www.rotordynamics.org/public/FontProblem.xlsx
Thanks,
Brian Murphy