Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Working with annotations
Once you complete the geodatabase, you may want to visualize it by creating a map. An
important element of a map is labeling, where features are labeled based on their values,
giving richness to the map. If you are familiar with ArcMap, you might have done labeling
before. However, labeling is done in the map and labels are generated and placed dynamic-
ally. This might not be efficient for a large set of features. That's why we are interested in
another method of labeling using what we call the annotation class.
Note
Labeling is a property of a map where a text label is placed on each feature, pointing to a
single or a combination of attribute values in that feature.
An annotation class is a geodatabase dataset used to label features in a feature class.
Our Belize client has asked us to label all their venues with their names. For this, we will
use annotation. To do so, perform the following steps:
1. Open your
Belize_Basemap.mxd
file. You should see the Diner's layers as we
saved it in the previous exercise.
2. Double-click on the
Belize Diners
layer to open the layer properties and select the
Labels
tab.
3. Check the
Label Features
option in this layer and then select
Diner's Name
from
the
Label
drop-down list.
Note how ArcMap displays a label on each feature; this could be enough and we
can stop here. Labeling works on the client side. This puts more work on ArcMap,
as software and the machine's ArcMap is installed only to render, color, and style
the labels. With more features, map labeling is usually not the optimal way and can
result in performance problems. That's why annotation is recommended. Annota-
tions works on the server side, and they are brought to ArcMap ready to be dis-
played, which optimizes the map.
4. Creating an annotation is easy; simply right-click on the
Belize Diners
layer and
click on
Convert Labels to Annotation...
, as you can see in the following screen-
shot:
