Bug 103863 - Enhancement request: Chart title/label from spreadsheet cell (i.e., dynamic instead of fixed value)
Summary: Enhancement request: Chart title/label from spreadsheet cell (i.e., dynamic i...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Chart (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 116729 146858 154936 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Chart-Labels 138436 143942
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Reported: 2016-11-11 13:06 UTC by Lars Jødal
Modified: 2025-05-12 05:46 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

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Description Lars Jødal 2016-11-11 13:06:46 UTC
A Calc chart can read its data from spreadsheet cells, and the chart is dynamic: if the data changes. However, the title and labels of the chart can only be entered as fixed values - they cannot be read from a spreadsheet cell.

My request is that (Calc) charts should be enhanced to similarly allow dynamic titles and labels. This will give the user much more flexibility in making charts that can be used as a template where data AND titles/label can be changed without "manual" editing of the diagram.

I often miss this feature when analyzing data in Calc. Often I set up a series of charts to present a sample data set in the way I wish. Afterwards, I use the final spreadsheet with charts to analyse other data sets. While diagrams can dynamically change to reflect the new data, I have to manually change titles and labels, even though the titles and labels are given in my data.

(M$ Excel already works in this way: If the chart is created from data including headlines, the headlines become dynamic labels connected to the headline cells. As argued above, I consider this a very useful feature.)

Any chance of this becoming possible in charts created in Calc (and possibly charts created otherwise)?

Best regards,
Lars J
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2016-11-12 04:44:25 UTC
Valid request.

FYI: Enhancements are handled by volunteers. I'm only confirming that this is a valid request, not that it will *ever* be implemented. It might be implemented soon, it might never be implemented, all up to who finds it interesting.
Comment 2 Regina Henschel 2018-04-01 12:52:43 UTC
The ODF file format allows a cell range for title, subtitle, x-axis title and for y-axis title. Only LibreOffice has not implemented it.
Comment 3 Xisco Faulí 2018-04-03 15:07:03 UTC
*** Bug 116729 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Paul White 2020-07-26 01:22:21 UTC
For me too, this would be an invaluable feature.
Comment 5 Deák György 2020-11-30 21:30:15 UTC Comment hidden (me-too)
Comment 6 elias estatistics 2021-08-28 13:46:31 UTC Comment hidden (me-too)
Comment 7 m_a_riosv 2022-01-21 21:41:28 UTC
*** Bug 146858 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2023-04-21 06:59:24 UTC
*** Bug 154936 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Gerald Pfeifer 2023-08-20 07:42:47 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 Ian Eales 2025-05-10 13:22:09 UTC
Perhaps this could be implemented before the request reaches its 10th anniversary?

I sometimes think the developers only work with simple workbooks and don't realize how such simple things as this to implement - as already existing in OO code - impacts power users who use spreadsheets for somewhat more than lists.
Comment 11 Lars Jødal 2025-05-12 05:46:55 UTC
(In reply to Ian Eales from comment #10)
> Perhaps this could be implemented before the request reaches its 10th
> anniversary?
> 
> I sometimes think the developers only work with simple workbooks and don't
> realize how such simple things as this to implement - as already existing in
> OO code - impacts power users who use spreadsheets for somewhat more than
> lists.

As the proposer of this enhancement, I hope so, too.

However, I am also aware that LibreOffice is a project driven by volunteers (as was stated already in comment #1), which is why LO can be distrubuted as free software - free of charge and free of adds. Volunteers tend to focus on the features they use themselves. Take me - I volunteer on keeping the Danish dictionary and the Danish LO translation up-to-date. Those are features that are important to me, and I hope they are of help to quite a few other users, but 99+ % of worldwide LO users will have little interest in the Danish translation.

The developers are also volunteers. Surely they will focus on important issues. Unfortunately, it appears that the group of developers that have insight into programming the LO code for charts, does not coincide with the group of users who miss this feature. At least they have not missed it enough to solve it (whicah may be easy or hard, I do not know which).

I am sorry that the feature has not (yet) been implemented, but I do not think it will help to use negative words about good-working volunteers. We all have the option of trying to learn programming the code and dig into this subject and solve the problem ourselves. As for me, I'm not there yet. Any volunteers for the job?

Best regards,
Lars Jødal