idea multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering") in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

JeffWielki1 — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:13:24 GMT

AKA Label Clustering.

Sometimes I have multiple features that I need to be distinct (for example, points that need to remain as multiple visible points as opposed to a clustered single point) but all of those points have exactly the same callout. Manual cleanup ensues, and often times I would like to have a single callout box, with multiple arrows pointing to the various similarly attributed features.

Here's a relatively poor example of what I mean (it would be much cleaner ideally):

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

MikeSmith13 — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:19:57 GMT

Yes, I have to do this all the time.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

DianeMcConnaughey — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:04:36 GMT

I have wished for a label like this for years. Usually I just add lines from the label pointing to other features wtih the same label - but this is cumbersome

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

TheoFaull — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 15:20:03 GMT

You could use 'Polygon text' from the Draw toolbar to draw the callout manually and input the text inside. However, I'm unsure of how to draw straight lines.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

JohnDye — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:28:52 GMT

The inverse of this would also be useful for when you have lots of points that are geographically coincident.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

WendyLeonard — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 20:48:00 GMT

Please add this feature! It would be great!

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

AnnaSan1 — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:20:10 GMT

Please add this feature. I often have to "stack" multiple callouts to create the same effect as the originally poster. The call out ends up looking unprofessional and quite frankly, ugly.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

ThomasColson — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 13:39:26 GMT

Given that I often deal with so many Bigfoot sightings at the home of the Annual Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Conference, this is a must have. Please prioritize in time for next year's conference, and I'll make sure to highlight how I use Pro to keep track of 'Squatch habitat in the keynote.....

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

DanHoffman1 — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 16:39:57 GMT

I know Callout Boxes were shown as an example, but definitely if we could do multiple leader lines that would be really clean looking and a nice function. We often need to point to several polygon fragments as that is the nature of many of our fragmented unincorporated areas.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

MichaelHuber — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:41:27 GMT

I also have a regular use for labels or annotations with multiple leaders. I feel like this is a fairly basic mapping component that should have been added ages ago. Creating additional feature classes is quite a time consuming workaround.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

ChrisScheiner — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 13:31:10 GMT

This would be such a useful feature!

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

KoryKramer — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 16:11:09 GMT

Thank you for the comment @ChrisScheiner I took a look and it doesn't appear that you added your kudos to the idea. While comments are important, kudos (the number of votes) that an idea receives is one of the primary pieces of data that we use to determine traction and trends as we monitor idea activity over time.

Please see https://community.esri.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/arcgis-ideas for a high level overview of how ArcGIS Ideas works. For more details, see

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Kory

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

DuncanJackson — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 01:06:52 GMT

Yes please

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

KoryKramer — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 12:24:51 GMT

@DuncanJackson See my comment above. Be sure to add your kudos to ideas for functionality you would like to see in ArcGIS Pro. Thank you!

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

DEVANBarrett — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 18:54:48 GMT

This feature would be great. I am work within tight areas with the need for multiple layers. Having the ability to have multiple arrows from one label would make my products more professional.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

RoseF — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 23:45:27 GMT

For geologic maps, this would also be a really useful technique. You can see on the screenshot I've attached, there are two geologic units -- Qat5 and Kis -- that require the use of two leaders. At the moment, we accomplish this by storing leaders as polyline features in their own feature class. Yes, separate from the annotation they are leadering.

I will add that it would probably only function as we need it to if it would also be possible to adjust the location of BOTH ends of the leader -- the anchor point as well as the other end point, where the leader "connects" to the label. The automatic spacing/margins are nice, but in a lot of cases, it would be useful to move that point around the label's "box".

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

Anonymous User — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 14:06:00 GMT

@RoseF I agree. Yes, we also store leaders as polyline features in their own feature class. Yes, separate from the annotation. We have the lines as red or black with an arrow. We can't get anywhere close to this look by using the actual annotation leader lines. If that functionality could be built in it would be great.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

wayfaringrob — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 14:28:33 GMT

Adding my support for this! There are many times (for some reason especially in grant applications) where I'll have a small number of one type of feature but putting it in the legend (or having a legend at all) just isn't practical. Being able to do that type of labeling within, well, labeling, would be great.

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

IlkaIllers1 — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 13:05:08 GMT

I don't know how many hours I have spent overlaying identical labels because there was not enough space or it made the map look too cluttered. This is super fiddly work if you want it to look neat since the label has to be in exactly the same spot. This feature could save me sooooo much work! Please add 🙂

Re: multiple leaders from a single label (i.e. "label clustering")

LarsArneson — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 22:32:39 GMT

I think this is a great idea. I just ran into a situation where this would be incredibly useful. Instead I will make a mess with some random shapes and lines that will need to be grouped and won't stay attached to the correct point when I try to move it in a few months 😕