# Allowing Students to Label Axes Directly in the Graph
**URL:** https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544
**Category:** Questions
**Created:** [January 28, 2026, 5:19am UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544 "2026-01-28T05:19:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Halil\_Tasova](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Halil_Tasova)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 5:19am UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/1 "2026-01-28T05:19:23Z")
Hi everyone,
Is there a way to let students label the axes directly within the graph component? Right now, I’ve connected the table to the axis labels, but I’d really like students to be able to type the labels directly into the graph itself.
Best,
Halil
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### Author:  [@port](https://cl.desmos.com/u/port)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/2 "2026-01-28T16:51:59Z")
can you give a link to make it easier?
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### Author:  [@Daniel\_Grubbs](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Daniel_Grubbs)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/3 "2026-01-28T17:30:00Z")
Using a sketch component, students could place a text box, but there’s currently not any way to reference their input, and there’s nothing native in the graph to do so.
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### Author:  [@Mike\_Gleeson](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Mike_Gleeson)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/4 "2026-01-31T16:30:06Z")
This can be done with Editable Point Labels and using the points as proxies for axes labels.
I’ve used this before to good effect with students. Looks like this:
Here you go: [Graph Labels • Activity by Mike Gleeson](https://classroom.amplify.com/activity/697e2b519030075eadb2eba2?utm_campaign=share&utm_content=activity)
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### Author:  [@Daniel\_Grubbs](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Daniel_Grubbs)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/5 "2026-01-31T20:12:44Z")
Those weren’t intended to get out in the wild. I don’t think we use them internally anymore. They can be glitchy.
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### Author:  [@Mike\_Gleeson](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Mike_Gleeson)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/6 "2026-01-31T20:25:24Z")
I’ve heard that. However I’ve always found that take kind of interesting…
I’ve seen them in at least one official Desmos Activity sometime in the past. More importantly though they’re deliberately exposed through Authoring Features in the Desmos Graphing Calculator itself: `https://www.desmos.com/calculator?advancedStyling=`
So… I’m not sure what it means that they weren’t intended to get out in the wild as they’ve been quite deliberately enabled in the calculator itself for years by Desmos.
Anyway for this use-case I think it’s probably the ideal solution and though it’s been said it’s “brittle”, I have to report that I’ve never had any issues with it. My students find it works great in our Activities for things like this.
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### Author:  [@Daniel\_Grubbs](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Daniel_Grubbs)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2026, 11:39pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/7 "2026-01-31T23:39:35Z")
What I mean is there’s not any simple interface in the calculator that makes them readily available without the flag. The brittle part is referencing the labels in CL, so your validation isn’t always guaranteed. Glad it’s worked well for you though!
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### Author:  [@Halil\_Tasova](https://cl.desmos.com/u/Halil_Tasova)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://cl.desmos.com/t/allowing-students-to-label-axes-directly-in-the-graph/8544/8 "2026-02-06T15:33:41Z")
This is great. Thanks, Mike!