Change the font color of data labels in a Sunburst chart in Excel

Question

I’m trying to change the font color of the data labels in a Sunburst chart in Excel using VBA.

So far, I’ve tried several approaches over the past two days, but I can’t seem to access or modify the color property of the series’ data labels. For example:

ActiveChart.FullSeriesCollection(1).DataLabels.Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)

This works fine for other chart types (like pie or column charts), but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on a Sunburst chart.

Has anyone managed to change the font color of Sunburst chart data labels via VBA?
Any help or workaround would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

FunThomas · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-12 18:01:02Z

4

I did a little test and it looks as if the data labels of a Sunburst Chart seems to have no Font property. Instead, every single data label is a kind of a shape, and you can access the properties using Format.

Not sure if this fits your need, but for me it worked:

Dim co As ChartObject, ch As Chart, dl As DataLabel
Set co = ws.ChartObjects(1)
Set ch = co.Chart
For Each dl In ch.FullSeriesCollection(1).DataLabels
    dl.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Size = 12
    dl.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = vbRed
    i = i + 1
Next

answered Nov 12 at 18:01

FunThomas

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3 Comments

Grégory Fonrouge Nov 12 at 19:14

Thank you for your response. While trying your code, I noticed a problem. My SunburstChart is made up of many "rays". For your code to work, the data labels must be displayed on the screen and not hidden by Excel because of the small size of the radius! Otherwise I get an error code: Object required Thanks, you got me moving, however the color change doesn't work, only the font size change works.

Grégory Fonrouge Nov 12 at 20:40

Thanks again. I made progress thanks to your code. your code actually works. But Excel does not update the font color. When I manually go to the font properties the desired color is applied but is not displayed. Any idea? a sort of "Update Chart"

FunThomas Nov 13 at 7:57

Sorry, out of ideas. For me that works, and the labels are updated immediately. You could try to use the Refresh-method of the Chart Object (eg co.Refresh), but I have to clue if this would help.

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