Rotate Data Labels in Charts

Example: Our client likes Excel's "Tubes" chart, but dislikes the default placement of the data labels.  So we'll switch the orientation of those labels, from vertical to horizontal.  (The Tubes chart choice is under Custom Types, Step 1 of the Chart Wizard.)

1. Right click on one of the data labels and choose Format Data Labels.

2. Select the Alignment tab.

3. We need to change the Degrees setting from -90 to 0.

Note: There are a number of ways to change this setting.  You can repeatedly click on the Degrees up arrow; you can highlight the -90 setting and type the number 0; or you can place the mouse pointer on the red dot at the bottom of the Orientation diagram and drag so that "Text" changes to a horizontal position.

Click OK.

4. The first set of data labels is now horizontal.

5. Repeat the process for the remaining series, and all the data labels will have been rotated.