Color the font in the cells the color you want the label text to be. Then right after this line:

        .SeriesCollection(iSeries).Interior.ColorIndex = _
            rSeries.Interior.ColorIndex

insert this:

        .SeriesCollection(iSeries).DataLabels.Font.ColorIndex = _
            rSeries.Font.ColorIndex

I’m looking through the conversation and I don’t believe the following question has been asked…

In addition to changing the colors of the interiors of the bars in my chart, I’d like it to be able to change the color of the label font as well. I’m putting the labels at the base of the bars. One of my bars is set to show up black, so obviously a label with black font won’t show. I’m tried variations in my code to get it to pick up the font color in addition to the background color in my rPatterns range, but so far no luck.

Any ideas on this? Thanks much, I’m far from a programmer myself but am pretty good at adapting code.

Paresh has sent me a chart offline which he constructed by formatting one series, then selecting it, copying it using Ctrl+C, and pasting it using Ctrl+V. This functionality is new in Excel 2007, and is applicable to more than just one series. It seems if you copy any other chart element besides a single series, pasting duplicates all series in the chart.

Similar behavior exists in 2003: copy the chart area of a chart, select the same or a different chart, and paste to adds the data of the copied chart to the active chart. I had never noticed this in 2007: if it’s a feature it’s a useful one. If it’s a bug, it’s still a useful one.

If you want to use a template, you need to format as many series as you will need. not just five.

Continued my research on the subject and this is what I discovered;

a. maximum number of series in a chart is 255. This will seriously limit the use of parallel coordinates in excel as one would expect analysing hundreds of items at one time.

b. An easy way to create a line chart with one color is ;
1. create a line chart with one series
2. modify the line as per requirements; color, thickness.
3. Copy the series in the chart using control c
4. paste it as many times as you want using contol v [ the 255 limit will apply]
5. save the chart as template

In the future whenever you draw a chart you can change the chart type to the saved template — you will have a line chart with one color.

If the limit was not there, one could have visualised the use of parallel coordinates in excel with incredible scope using the filter functionality.

Anyway time for an article on phd on chart templates.

Thanks.

But a parallel coordinate chart would have a large number of line and changing it one by one using F4 key would be tedious. Maybe the only alternative [ apart from using VBA ] is to use the first option in chart styles which give monchromatic graphs. Another alternative I have tried is to create chart template where say five lines have the same color and tried to use it for the new chart – works but only for five series for the sixth the color comes again.

paresh

You can’t format the lines all at once. You can format one, then select the next, and press the F4 shortcut key (”Repeat Last Action”). This works nicely in 2003, repeating all changes from the trip to the formatting dialog. In 2007 it repeats at most the last one action (like line color or marker type), and sometimes none at all.

Was going through your articles on parallel coordinates. In that article you mentioned that you formatted all the lines to light grey. Did you format this line by line or is there a way to format all lines at one time – Would like to avoid VBA if possible.

paresh