Add data labels, notes, or error bars to a chart

               

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Add data labels

You can add data labels to a bar, column, scatter, area, line, waterfall, histograms, or pie chart. Learn more about chart types.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
3. At the right, click Customize  Series.
4. Check the box next to “Data labels.”

Tip: Under "Position," you can choose if you want the data label to be inside or outside the bar.  

Edit data labels

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
3. At the right, click Customize  Series.
4. To customize your data labels, you can change the font, style, color and number format. 

Tip: To edit an individual data label, double-click the text.

If you’re creating a pie chart

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
3. At the right, click Customize.
4. Click Pie chart.
5. Under "Slice label," choose an option.

Add a total data label to a stacked chart

You can add a label that shows the sum of the stacked data in a bar, column, or area chart. Learn more about types of charts.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
3.  At the right, click Customize  Series.
4. Optional: Next to "Apply to," choose the data series you want to add a label to.
5. Click Total data labels.
6. Optional: Make changes to the label font.

Add notes to a chart

You can add a note, or annotation, to explain trends in the data.

Before you add a note: You can add notes to bar, column, scatter, area, line, and waterfall charts. Learn more about chart types.

Add notes to a data point

Step 1: Add text notes

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. In the column to the right of each data point, add your text notes.

If your notes don’t show up on the chart, go to Step 2.

Example

• Column A: Labels for horizontal axis
• Column B: Data points for vertical axis
• Column C: Notes

	A	B	C
1	Day of Week	Sales	Notes
2	Monday	50	Low profits
3	Tuesday	100	Online coupon announced

Step 2: Add labels

1. Double-click the chart you want to add notes to.
2. At the right, click Setup.
3. In the box next to "X-axis," click More   Add labels.
4. Enter the data range with your notes. For example, C2:C3.
5. Click OK.

Add notes to the horizontal axis

Step 1: Add text notes

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. To the right of the column with your X-axis, add your notes.

If your notes don’t show up on the chart, go to Step 2.

Example

• Column A: Labels for horizontal (X) axis
• Column B: Notes
• Column C: Data points for each label

	A	B	C
1	Day of week	Notes	Sales
2	Monday	Low profits	50
3	Tuesday	Online coupon announced	100

.

Step 2: Add labels

1. Double-click the chart you want to add notes to.
2. At the right, click Setup.
3. In the box next to "Series," click More Add labels.
4. Enter the data range with your notes. For example, B2:B3.

Add error bars to a chart

You can add error bars to bar or line charts based on a constant value, a percentage value of a specific item, or the series' standard deviation value. If you choose the standard deviation type, the error bars are centered on the mean of the series, not on the value of each individual item.

1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
2. To open the editor panel, double-click the chart.
3. Click Customize  Series.
4. Check the box next to “Error bars.”
5. Choose the type and value.