How can I move the legend around a Box Plot in Excel?

Question

I am trying to find the perfect spot for a legend in a box plot. I want to be able to move it around freely like I can with scatter and line plots. I can't seem to figure out the trick. I can highlight the legend, but I can't drag it anywhere. For that matter, I tried to put it at the bottom, but it overlaps with the horizontal labels. I tried to make the plot both larger and smaller, but I can't seem to do that either.

Is there a way to place the legend anywhere, besides the standard places that excel suggests?

Answer 1

Dear @NotForYou, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.  

As a moderator, I have the same experience as you and other users in this forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas. However, I will try my best to guide you as clearly as possible.    

Currently, my test environment also has a similar issue. It seems this is by design of the product, meaning Excel is locking the position of the Legend to default locations. In this case, I recommend we should share valuable feedback together about this feature through the Microsoft Ideas Community at Ideas · Community so that Microsoft Product Team can review user preferences. The Product Team is in-charge of the feedback site, and they are constantly checking the comments and feedback from their customer. Many features have been developed or improved based on users' comment.    

In the meantime, I’ve found a workaround for temporary: creating a text box to replace the actual legend box, then grouping that text box with the chart so they move together. Go to the Insert tab > Text Box and draw a small frame directly on the chart. Type the names of the data groups into the Text Box. Hold the Ctrl key, select both the Text Box and the chart, then right-click and select Group. Now you can move the entire unit without the legend getting misaligned. 

If possible, please help me refine this workaround so I can continue my work without interruption. Also, if you find anything else, don't forget to share it with me so I can take note, maybe it might help improve my workflow. 

I am looking forward to your response so we can move forward with this! 

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Answer 2

In Excel, the ability to move the legend around freely is somewhat limited compared to other chart types like scatter or line plots. For box plots, the legend can typically only be placed in predefined positions such as the top, bottom, left, or right of the chart. Unfortunately, you cannot drag the legend to arbitrary positions as you might with other chart types.

If you want to avoid overlapping with the horizontal labels, you may try adjusting the chart's size or the legend's position settings. However, if the standard positions do not work for your layout, you might consider using a text box to create a custom legend. This way, you can place it anywhere on the chart without the constraints of the built-in legend.

For more advanced manipulation of chart elements, you might need to explore using Excel's scripting capabilities or consider using a different chart type that allows for more flexibility in legend placement.

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References:

• Legend.Position Property
• ExcelScript.ChartLegend interface