<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text Char";
margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.PlainTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Plain Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text";
font-family:"Courier New";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-NZ link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText>Hi everyone,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I somehow sent this to the old sourceforge list by mistake :(<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I'm not a developer, but I saw this:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>> it would be nice to be able to<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>interactively place the diagrams as you have done with labels. How <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>would the diagram's placement be persisted? In the same way as labels <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>using a specified columns? Some users have requested that label <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>placement could work like E$RI where the labels can be turned into <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>graphics and placement is stored in the project file (or whatever the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>>>ESRI equivalent of that is) - so that you don't<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>> The placement would be the same as for labels (stored in columns). <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>> The option to change the objects to graphics would be nice. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>> Technically, it could probably be done by turning the labels into <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>> annotation objects (QgsTextAnnotation). However, this is out of scope for me at the moment.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>I think the labels/diagrams do not have to be converted to graphics, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>since that might complicate their connection with the layer and the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>automatic placement (e.g. if the label text field is modified or the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>placement should be recalculated because of changes in the layer).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>I share Tim's opinion opinion that in future it would be good to allow <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>to save the placement in project file (or maybe an independent file).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>While keeping the placement information in layer attributes might be <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>convenient for some (as commented in follow up mail from Andreas), it <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>has some difficulties, too:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>- if a layer is used in various independent projects, the labeling <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>requirements might be different for each of them<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>- it's not very user friendly if the users need to manually add new <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>attributes to the layer, assign them to labeling and learn what values <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>to put there<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>- the approach using attributes is not that flexible: things like <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>curved labels or any custom labeling properties would be rather hard to <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>represent in layer's attributes<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that a much better <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>solution would be to enable editing of joined tables in the table joins <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>branch. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Instead of being saved in the project file, label information could then <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>be saved in a joined table. This would have the following advantages:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>- The project file would not become bloated with label information<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>- Label information could be easily reused between projects<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>- The work done to implement it would benefit not only labelling, but <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>also other uses of writable table joins.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I also guess that it might result in less of an increase in code <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>complexity, and therefore be less of a burden for code maintenance... <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>but I could well be wrong about this :)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Regards,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Alister<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>