I’ve just posted version 7.0 of the XY Chart Labeler on my web site. This is the first significant upgrade to this utility in almost five years. Because the XY Chart Labeler was already a mature, stable utility prior to version 7, most new features in this version are background improvements that provide better performance for pre-existing features. However, several new minor features make their debut in version 7, including:

• Smart Selection – If you select the chart series, data point or label you want to operate on, the XY Chart Labeler will recognize the selection and pre-select the appropriate entries in its dialogs.
• Active Selection – As you select chart series and data points in the various chart labeler dialog dropdowns, the objects you select will also be selected in the chart below, so you can see exactly what you’ll be modifying.
• Larger Dialogs – The width of all XY Chart Labeler dialogs has been increased in order to improve the display of wide entries.
• Automation – In this version, the core chart series labeling logic has been exposed as a public function that can be called from other Excel VBA programs.
• Help File – I’ve written a comprehensive help file and example files for this version.

I’m making no promises regarding Excel 2007 compatability other than the chart labeler will work in the simplest cases. I’ll evaluate this policy again once we see a service pack or two. There will be a German translation available shortly courtesy of Excel MVP Thomas Ramel. You can get the latest version of the XY Chart Labeler here:

http://www.appspro.com/Utilities/ChartLabeler.htm

Since we’re on the topic of Excel utilities lately, I figured I’d jump in with my announcement of a new major version of the Excel VBA Code Cleaner. Here’s a brief summary of what’s new:

• The code cleaner is now implemented as a COM add-in. This has significantly improved its speed and stability.
• I addressed the most commonly requested improvement by adding two new features: code module export-only and code module import-only. While not technically related to code cleaning, I’ve received numerous requests from users who want the code cleaner to assist them with Excel source code control.
• I addressed my second most common feature request by exposing virtually every function used within the code cleaner to COM automation. You can now use the code cleaner DLL to roll your own code cleaning and code management solutions.
• The code cleaner desperately needed a high-quality help file, and I finally wrote one for this version. The help file includes complete documentation of the COM interface, including examples.

Like previous versions, the code cleaner is free and source code is included. With this version, however, you’ll need a copy of VB6 to take advantage of the source code because that’s what I used to write it. The source code will be located in the installation folder in a file cryptically named VB6_SourceCode.zip.

You can download the new code cleaner from:

http://www.appspro.com/Utilities/CodeCleaner.htm

Please uninstall any previous versions of the code cleaner prior to installing this version. Comments and bug reports welcome.