When creating and using charts repetitively, it can be handy to know how to link some of your chart text elements, such as titles and labels, directly to a cell. This means that if and when your underlying data changes, your chart data and its text elements will always be in harmony.
The chart text elements you can link to a cell are the chart title, the primary and secondary X-axis titles, the primary and secondary Y-axis titles, and the series data labels.
To see how this is done, you will link the title of a chart to a cell. So, to begin, set up some data such as that shown in Figure 5-38 and, using the Chart Wizard, create a basic clustered column chart. Now click cell A17 and type Age of Employees.
The next step is to establish a link between the chart title and the cell. So, select the chart title (Age, in this case), then go to the Formula bar, type = (an equals sign), click cell A17, and press Enter. (Note that if you are referencing a cell on another sheet, you will have to type the sheet name followed by an exclamation mark [!], then the cell reference.)
The same process works for data labels, but you need to select an individual data label before linking it to a cell. Your results should look like Figure 5-39.
This smart hack will make your chart text elements and chart data stay in harmony. Plus, it can save you time when creating charts.
Andy Pope