By adding text components to labels, you can create new label styles that label specific features, such as parcel area, name, and perimeter.
Text components make use of dynamic label properties that you can assign in the Text Component Editor. Each object type has several properties you can use to build the label style components.
For example, when setting up parcel line segment labels, you can choose among the following label properties:
- Segment length
- Segment start and end northings and eastings
- Segment direction
- Parcel line number
When you label a parcel using the label style, the labels are generated based on the parcel object’s properties. If the parcel properties change, then the labels are updated dynamically.
There are two basic strategies you can use when adding text components to a label. If you want more precise control over the label’s appearance, you can either add several properties to one text component or define a separate component for each piece of text in the label.
Adding Multiple Properties to a Text Component
You can add multiple properties to one text component.
The advantages of this strategy include
- Fewer text components to define
- Fewer placement rules to define
- The ability to place one border around the entire label
Adding a Single Property to a Text Component
Alternately, you can add a single property per text component, and define multiple text components.
The advantages of this strategy include
- More precise control over the placement of each piece of text
- More property formatting options
- The ability to turn off the visibility of one or more of the text components while leaving others visible
To add a text component to a label
- In the Label Style Composer dialog box, click the Layout tab.
- Click the Down arrow in
, and then click . The component automatically receives a default name, Text.1.
- Enter a name in the Name box.
- Under Text, click the Value column for Contents and then click
:
- In the Text Component Editor, on the Properties tab, select a property from the Properties list. This list contains a set of properties applicable to each label style type.
When you select a property, Modifiers and their Values are displayed in the grid below it. These modifiers control such things as the units and precision of the labels.
- Change the modifier values in the Value column as needed.
- Click
. This inserts a property field into the Text Component Editor window. For example, if you are setting up a parcel area label, and you insert the Parcel Area property, the following property field is inserted:
<[Parcel Area(Usq_m|P2|RN|AP|Sn|OF)]>
For more information about property fields, see Property Fields.
- Add static text as needed in the Text Component Editor window.
For example, you might want to add “Area =” before the parcel area property field, and “square meters” after the property field.
To do this, click in the Text Component Editor window and enter the text directly. You can also insert a paragraph return after a property field and then insert additional properties to create a multi-line label.
You can use the formatting options on the Text Component Editor window context menu to modify the text that you manually enter.
- If you want to add additional properties to the text component, select them from the Properties list and insert them, as shown in Step 7.
- If you want to specify different justification, fonts, or colors for the label component, click the Format tab in the Text Component Editor. For more information, see Formatting Text.
- Click OK to close the Text Component Editor.
. Simply changing a modifier value and clicking 