Scatter Plot, with legend?

**dpsersimon** · 05-28-2013, 07:09 AM

Hi Guys,

I am using a scatter plot to display a bunch of data, each point is an x,y coordinate on the scatter plot. What I wanted to know, if its possible, is can you have all the points be a different colour and have a legend with a name attached to it? Or can you have the name displayed when you highlight over the difference points on the scatter plot?

I have uploaded a small example where I would like a legend listing

One
Two
Three
Four

and the four x,y coordinates to be in different colours.

I hope that makes sense

Thanks for the help guys!

**MrShorty** · 05-28-2013, 09:02 AM

can you have all the points be a different colour and have a legend with a name attached to it?

Yes. IMO, the easiest way is to have each data point be added as its own series. The way you have the data laid out, Excel is going to add one series (with four points). You will need to go into the "select source data" dialog http://www.addictivetips.com/microso...urce-of-chart/ and modify/add series so that series one x data is C4, y data is D4 -- series 2 x data is C5, y data is D5 -- and so on. Each series should automatically have a legend entry (that can be edited by changing the series name) and a different marker color/style. If you don't like the defaults, format each data series independently.

**dpsersimon** · 06-02-2013, 08:40 PM

Thanks MrShorty,

That works well, the only problem is I have 82 data points, is there any way I can automate the process, I have tried recording a macro and playing around with it to no success

**MrShorty** · 06-02-2013, 08:59 PM

How often do you have to make this graph up?

When I do a project like this, I manually make it up the first time. Yes, I know it is tedious with 82 data points and all, but I find it is easier and faster than trying to figure out the VBA code to automate it (I'm sure there are those here who would be able to write the code fairly quickly, if they want to chime in). Once I have made the spreadsheet once, I make sure that each successive data set that I want to plot gets entered into the spreadsheet in the same format as the first time. If I've done it all right, each successive data set can be plotted with minimal additional effort by simply entering the data in the same places as the first data set.