Excel Desktop chart selection issue – 2 data points do not show selection handles

Question

Excel Desktop chart selection issue – 2 data points do not show selection handles

Moustafa Cherif 0

I am experiencing a chart selection issue in Excel Desktop.

I have a column chart with a Target series containing 18 data points. When I select the Target series in Excel Desktop, 2 data points do not display the selection handles, even though they are part of the same Target series.

The same workbook was tested in Excel for the web, and all 18 Target data points are selected correctly there.

I also tested Excel Desktop in Safe Mode (excel /safe), and the same 2 data points still do not display the selection handles.

I recreated the Target series and also changed the series overlap, but the issue remained.

To confirm that this is not specific to my original workbook or its data, I created a completely new workbook with a simple chart containing only 1 Target series and 18 data points. The same issue occurs: 1 data point does not display the selection handle when the Target series is selected.

This appears to be an Excel Desktop chart selection/rendering issue.

Please investigate whether this is a known Excel Desktop bug and advise on a solution or workaround.

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@Moustafa Cherif

The number of "selection handles" seems to be maximised at 16. Any chart with more than 16 data points will only display 16 such handles. I've tried on PC and Mac with the same results. Created a line chart with 100 data points and only 16 handles are displayed somewhat evenly spread on the line.

I searched the web but found no documentation regarding this fact but it seems to make sense as you would not want to see a handle on each and every data point when you click a series. Consider the "max 16 handles" as a visual reference that merely indicate which series you have selected for formatting.