idea Ability to add prefix to annotation feature class and choose custom name in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Ability to add prefix to annotation feature class and choose custom name

RTPL_AU — Fri, 10 May 2024 14:11:15 GMT

When converting labels to annotations in Pro you cannot change the name of the annotation feature class (AFC) nor can you add a prefix to the default name.
Please add the ability to create a custom feature class name as well as the ability to set a prefix to the default name.

We prefix all our AFCs with 'anno_' so that they are grouped together in the GDB.
If there are many AFCs created from the same layer name (same layer added multiple times) then you have to use a custom suffix for each one and then go back to the GDB and rename them to something sensible.

A workflow now has to be discarded because Pro cannot do what ArcMap does.

Further to this - remove the requirement to add a new contents group layer for every annotation layer that is created. Is there a good reason that Pro cannot use an AFC that is not in a group layer in Contents?

Re: Ability to add prefix to annotation feature class and choose custom name

RTPL_AU — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 01:06:57 GMT

@KoryKramer Please tell me what the rationale and process you had in mind was for the following:

Not allowing us to rename annotation layers in the "Convert Labels to Annotation"
Placing resulting annotations in a group layer

These are steps I now have to go through every single time to get the required data names / map structure (rename in gdb and remove from group).
It is a non-trivial change from ArcMap so I assume there has to be some clear reason why; and if you can tell me it may help me do things better.

My process: Prefix all annotation with 'anno_' so that they are all together at the top of a gdb in catalog view. Then they may also be named to set the doc version, reason, style used, etc. We may have the same dataset labelled/anno'd multiple times for different documents or document versions.
I may place all final annotations in a group layer (e.g. to turn them off easily to see what labels remain) but usually they are each just a single map layer on their own.

Re: Ability to add prefix to annotation feature class and choose custom name

RichardHowe — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 07:42:28 GMT

Agree with this. This is effectively an ArcMap equivalency issue and as such should be addressed.

Re: Ability to add prefix to annotation feature class and choose custom name

BrookeAumann — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 13:03:02 GMT

I've been looking for this! Agree with everything AND would be nice if we could append directly as well via the same dialog like we could in ArcMap. I don't want a million temp FCs just to turn it into one.

Add option to add prefix or suffix to annotation layer name when converting labels

RTPL_AU — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:04:06 GMT

We use a process that has all annotation layer names start with an 'anno_' prefix.

This was easy to add/do in ArcMap but Pro only allows suffixes, so now we have to convert labels to an annotation feature class then rename them. Every Time.

Please add the option to define a prefix or suffix, and while you're in there, add a checkbox to choose if Pro should create an output layer or not.
I never use the Output Layer as I may have other groups etc already set up so this adds yet another inefficiency for me.