Plotly: always show hovertext

Question

Is there a parameter in Plotly (python) to make the hovertext boxes always show (i.e. rather than only when hovered over)?

The alternative is to make multiple annotations but I was hoping there might be a quicker solution.

Answer 1

For a scatterplot I would create the 'text' attribute to the trace, then specify 'markers+lines+text' and a 'textposition'. This will plot some text next to every point that you specify. In the example below I've demonstrated that you can still use the <br> and <b> tags to style these labels. Obviously, depending on your data, you may need to position them a little more carefully.

import plotly
plotly.offline.init_notebook_mode()
trace = {'type' : 'scatter', 'x' : [1,2,3,4,5,6], 'y' : [1,2,3,4,5,6],
'text' : ['a<br>aaa','<b>b</b>','c','d','e','f'], 'mode' : 'markers+text', 
'textposition' : 'center right'}
plotly.offline.iplot([trace])

For a barplot or other, this will be a lot more difficult. You will probably have to go the annotation route, although you may get some mileage out of the PostMessage API, specifically the hover task (Plotly tutorial here).

Hope this helps!