How to create an XY plot with individual data points?

[Steavio99]

##The Objective ##
I have three columns of data. One contains X-values, the other contains corresponding Y-values, and one contains a label for that pair. I want to graph them the way that Libreoffice graphs by default if I select the non-data-label columns and create an xy plot, but I want each point to be labeled individually (above the point or in a key, doesn’t matter).

Example

I have (made up) data about people’s heights and weights as follows:

     Height   Weight

Mary-----72----------150

Jim-------68-----------140

Bob-----54-----------105

Scott----78----------160

Will------64-----------130

Emma–66-----------135

I want to graph height on the x-axis and weight on the y-axis, and I want each data point to be labeled with the person’s name. I can’t get libreoffice to do this by default, and while a lot of people have said online that you need a macro to do it, I haven’t been able to find one of those, either.

It’s not that bad to enter it manually as a bunch of different data series if there are only a few points like this, but when it gets to be larger, it’s a bit of a pain.

Thanks a lot,
Steavio99

[horst]

Double click your chart to go into edit mode.

Menu format → Data Ranges… Tab:Data Series shows your selected data and in the lower half you will see an entry field labeled “Data Labels”. Here you enter your range for the names and it should display the data labels.

OR

Right click on one of the Y-values. In the popup windows select Insert Datalabels.

[cloph]

With that layout it is only possible to lable the individual data-points in the chart, all entries would have the same symbol (by default, you can change individual points manually, but you want to avoid manual adjustments…)

As written by horst, Initially add the chart with only the Width & Height columns selected. In the dialog page for Data Range, add the column with the names in the entry field for Data Labels

When inserting the labels to the chart, the trick is to NOT use “values”, but instead check [x] show category to show the text from the label-cell.

If you want them color coded (without manually changing each data-point), you’d need to add your data like this:

Height Mary Jim Bob Scott Will Emma
72     150					
68          140				
54              105			
78                   160		
64                         130	
66                              135

[Steavio99]

Thank you!

[NealEhardt]

This works great! I found that I can transpose the labels from column to row by copying them and doing a Paste Special and clicking the Transpose button in that dialog. Is there an easy way to transpose the Y-values from column to diagonal?