Comments on: Directly Labeling Your Line Graphs

By: Ann K. Emery

Ann K. Emery — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:35:42 +0000

In reply to Gary LaPointe. AGREE! I have a love-hate relationship with Excel's default settings.

By: Gary LaPointe

Gary LaPointe — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 19:11:00 +0000

This really needs to be easier to do. It shouldn’t have to be done for each line in the graph. It should be a one button click (I should be able to set it as a default, as it is the way that makes the most sense!).

I found this post, because half the time when I click, it’s wants to add the label to all the points on the line (and it’s clear I only selected the last data point). Or it wants to use the value of the last data point as the table.

But sometimes it’s just fine, it makes no sense.

By: Yahir Salinas

Yahir Salinas — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:06:21 +0000

Very helpful explanation — I learned several useful techniques.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 18:09:47 +0000

Yep, it works. Thanks very much! Somehow I had missed the distinction between clicking on the whole line and clicking on a single point, but I get it now. 🙂

By: Ann K. Emery

Ann K. Emery — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 18:00:58 +0000

In reply to Tom.

I think this is an easy fix.

If you click on the line once, all the points will be selected. So, if you add labels, you’ll get labels on allll the points.

If you click on the right-most point on the line, then just the right-most point will be selected, which means you can label that single point.

Let me know if that works! I teach the how-to’s in live and asynchronous courses, but I don’t think I have a public-facing blog post or YouTube video on this exact technique. (Yet! I’ll add it to the list of blog post ideas.)

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 17:54:38 +0000

In reply to Ann K. Emery. I have the same question. I see the paragraph with #1 & #2, but when I follow your instructions in #1, I don't get a single label for each line. Instead I get multiple labels per line (one label at each data point in the line) similar to the labels shown in your post "How to Place Labels Directly Through Your Line Graph in Microsoft Excel." Is there a way to have just one label show to the right of the line, like in your screenshots above?