[Qgis-user] annotation = new labeling

[Alex Mandel]

On 05/20/2012 02:09 PM, Jake Maier wrote:
> I need some help with annotations
> 
> I worked with annotations in ArcMap, so I'm a little familiar with the
> concept and some of its workings in ArcMap. I tried to read up on it
> googling annotations and qgis. Now I seem stuck on creating a .ui in a qt
> designer. Help!!! Where do I find the qt designer. I see it mention in some
> places but tried in vain to locate a download or a place to load it as a
> python extension.
> 
> I have a (soil) layer with lots of polygons and soil symbols. But the
> symbols are often outside the polygons. Now I need to move those labels and
> thought annotations would be the best way to accomplish this. But how do I
> do this.
> 
> While at this topic, does qgis provide the possibiltiy to bend an annotation
> following a polyline?
> 
> Thanks for any pointers 
> 
> Jake
> 

Yes, QGIS supports what you want. The key is that it works differently
(in my opinion better) than ArcMap. What you want is data driven label
placement offered by the "New" Labeling engine (ABC icon in your menus).
This lets you set columns in your table for the X,Y, offset, rotation
etc for each record. You can start with no values in the fields, and
then use the move label tool to manually drag to a new spot and it will
save the change to the table.

So the big key here, is unlike annotation the link between the data
source and the end label is never broken. Hence you won't find info on
it by googling for annotation.

Similarly make sure to look at the label options when dealing with a
line to find the option to follow the line.

Enjoy,
Alex