Build 5.0.0.12 of xlsgen introduces advanced data labels in charts.


Data labels leader lines (in red)


It is made of the following :

- Exposure in the object model, Read, Write, and exposure in the automatic source code generation tool (xlscodegen.exe) of data labels leader lines (see picture above), which are used to draw lines between data labels with custom positions and the actual chart data. This is for all Excel files (XLS, XLSX, XLSB, ...)

With this exposure, leader line formatting (color, width, style) can be accessed with the following type of code :

(C++)

chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->Show = xlsgen::datalabels_value;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->Type = xlsgen::chartbordertype_custom;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->Style = xlsgen::chartborderstyle_solid;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->Weight = xlsgen::chartborderweight_thick;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->Color = 0x00B0F0;

- Exposure of arrow/symbol formatting at the end of leader lines, both ends. Read, Write, and also exposure in the automatic source code generation tool (xlscodegen.exe). This is for all Excel files (XLS, XLSX, XLSB, ...). With this, as pictured above, you can add a symbol such as a triangle. And it works like this with a couple lines of code :

(C++)

chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->ArrowStyleBeginCap->Style = xlsgen::vectorshapearrowstyle_triangle;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->ArrowStyleBeginCap->Width = xlsgen::vectorshapearrowwidth_medium;
chart002s1->SeriesByIndex[1]->SeriesDataLabels->LeaderLinesOptions->Patterns->Borders->ArrowStyleBeginCap->Length = xlsgen::vectorshapearrowlength_medium;

- Extension of data label leader lines to chart types other than pie charts. Before Excel 2013, data label leader lines were exposed in Excel but only for pie charts (and their variants such as the doughnut). With Excel 2013, Excel extended the data label leader lines to all chart types, that is, bars, lines, XY charts, ...

What xlsgen does is provide Read and Write support for this as well. Also, what xlsgen does additionally is to render those formatted data label leader lines for all chart types. This comes at no cost for a client application since not even one line of code is needed for that.


Last but not least, it is important, as xlsgen keeps adding a lot of micro details API to the object model, which can be daunting to learn, grasp and handle, it is reminded that in fact the best way to get your job done is by using a particular feature by hand in Excel, saving the file, and then using our automatic source code generation tool (xlscodegen.exe) in order to obtain the corresponding source code, in one of many of the supported programming languages. It cannot be faster this way.