[Qgis-user] labels on maps

[Alister Hood]

Yes,
The "data defined labelling" we're talking about applies to these labels.
Have a look at what Micha wrote.  Don't bother with the "Create labeled layer" plugin I mentioned - I now realise it only creates an empty point layer.  Be aware that the automatic labels move around at different zoom levels, so choose an appropriate scale when you do any manual placement.
And I wasn't clear about the "easy custom labeling" plugin either - it does use the new labelling engine, but on a new layer made with a point at the centroid of each feature, so for polygon and polyline layers you lose the real benefits of the automatic label placement.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: M.E.Dodd [mailto:m.e.dodd at open.ac.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:22 p.m.
> To: Alister Hood
> Subject: RE: [Qgis-user] labels on maps
> 
> Thanks, I tried the layer>labelling in qgis 1.8 and managed to get labels
> that more or less don't overlap.  It did not mention 'collision avoidance'
> and has not put in lines but has put the labels in reasonable positions
> for most of the points either over, to one side, the other side or
> otherwise around the point without overwriting other close labels.  Very
> clever and much better than the original version of the map I had, however
> I am still not sure what to do about the small handful of labels that do
> overlap, is there a way of dragging or otherwise moving these?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alister Hood [mailto:Alister.Hood at synergine.com]
> Sent: 01 October 2012 23:39
> To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] labels on maps
> 
> Yes, the reason it's quite so easy in Mapinfo is because the label
> location overrides are saved in the project file, not in the layer's
> attribute fields.  (It isn't so easy to figure out how to unfreeze the
> label though - the button with the tooltip that just says "label"
> unfreezes the label location, but the label will remain visible if you
> switch off automatic labels... and now I seem to have killed Mapinfo...)
> 
> It's not like manually arranging labels is _hard_ in QGIS, but if you want
> it to be slightly more automated you can try the "create labelled layer"
> plugin.  I guess it might not be too hard to add an option to the plugin
> so it adds the attribute fields to the original layer, rather than to a
> copy.
> 
> And it turns out I was wrong, you can draw leaders in QGIS, using the
> "easy custom labelling" plugin.  This is exactly what you want.
> 
> But personally I think manually arranging labels is a mug's game, and you
> can't draw leaders for automatically placed labels (in either QGIS or
> MapInfo).
> 
> BTW, have you actually tried the automatic label placement?  Micha
> referred to it ("new labelling"), but he didn't explain where to find it.
> You may have only tried the "old labelling", which is a tab in the layer
> properties dialog and doesn't do any collision avoidance.  The separate
> "new labelling" dialog needs to be opened from a button on the labelling
> toolbar, or I guess in the menu, Layer>labelling (I'm not certain if that
> is available for you, as I'm running QGIS master).
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: M.E.Dodd [mailto:m.e.dodd at open.ac.uk]
> > Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:24 a.m.
> > To: Alister Hood; qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> > Subject: RE: [Qgis-user] labels on maps
> >
> > Doing what I want is easy in mapinfo as you just drag and drop the
> > labels individually and the line is automatically generated but I want
> > to do it in qgis.
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Alister Hood [Alister.Hood at synergine.com]
> > Sent: Monday, October 01, 2012 10:18 PM
> > To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> > Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] labels on maps
> >
> > > Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:48:54 +0200
> > > From: Micha Silver <micha at arava.co.il>
> > > To: "M.E.Dodd" <m.e.dodd at open.ac.uk>
> > > Cc: "qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org" <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
> > > Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] labels on maps
> > > Message-ID: <5069BB66.9000403 at arava.co.il>
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1255; format=flowed
> > >
> > > On 10/01/2012 04:40 PM, M.E.Dodd wrote:
> > > > converted from rtf
> > > > I have a map with lots of point data which I want to label.  When
> > > > switching on labels lots of them end up on top of each other as
> > > > some of the points are close to each other.  Is there a way of
> > > > automatically spacing the labels out to avoid overlap with a line
> > > > going to the point from the label. Alternatively a way of doing
> > > > this by hand just by dragging each of the labels out of the way
> > > > but automatically generating a line showing where the associated
> point is.
> > >
> > > You'll want to use the new labeling engine for this. You add, in
> > > advance, two columns to your point data attribute table for x
> > > displacement and y displacement, and specify these columns in the
> > > labeling "Data defined settings" tab. Then you can move each label
> > > individually (while the layer has editing enabled), and it's
> > > location will be saved to the table.
> >
> > Ah, but there's no way of doing what he wants and drawing a line from
> > the label to the feature (called a "leader" in CAD), is there?
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