[Qgis-user] Problem rotating labels

[Andrew Chapman]

I regularly have the same problem, but there are a couple of alternatives.
The one that I use is Layer Properties->Labels, Display Labels, select the
field containing label then the Advanced tab. You can now use the Data
defined placement->Angle to specify your angle field. You can also use the
same principle to use field dependent size, colour, etc. If nothing is
defined, QGIS simply uses the settings from the Label Properties tab. While
not documented anywhere that I've seen, you can also use the following for
Placement - 'Bottom Left','Left','Top Left','Bottom','Over',
'Top', 'Bottom Right','Right','Top Right'.
The other alternative is to use the ABC tool, but the only way that I can
see to get it to work is to first define fields for 'Label distance', 'X
Coordinate' and 'Y coordinate' - you will then have the option to select a
value for 'Rotation'. You could probably add a dummy field to your file
(using NULL values) and point the first three options there... but I haven't
tried that.

Andrew Chapman