How do I change the color of the font in an annotation class and apply the change?

[ICLAdmin]

I would like to change the color of the font in an annotation class. I think that I am on the right track, but thus far, I am unable to complete the task. Here are the steps I have taken:

1. Right clicked on the annotation feature in the Catalogue pane
2. Clicked "Annotation Feature Class Properties
3. Clicked the "Annotation Classes" tab at the top
4. Clicked "Edit this annotation class" (the pencil icon) next to the annotation class that I want to change the font color in
5. Clicked the Symbol tab
6. Changed the font color
7. Clicked Apply

This is the point where I might be doing something wrong. I get the following message at this stage:

I went ahead and clicked "Yes", but the font color remains unchanged.

This makes no sense to me at all. If there is anyone that can tell me how to just change the font color of my annotation class and apply the change, then I will be internally grateful!

[VincentLaunstorfer]

Hi,

In the steps you went through, you are actually updating the Default symbol of the Annotation Class... meaning you are updating the 'template'. Not the actual Annotation. In practice, if you create a new annotation using this 'template', you should get the color you selected.

Conceptually, all annotations (objects if you prefer) point to Annotation Classes which come from the label classes from the feature layer you converted to Annotation.

Then, you can change some properties of annotations (such as color) individually and in that case the annotation do not point to the 'template' any more. It makes annotation maintenance more difficult if many. Good practice is to keep the label classes as tidy as possible before converting to Annotation.

Some background here:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/3.0/help/mapping/text/display-geodatabase-annotation.htm

Hope this help

[ICLAdmin]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I still don't understand what I am doing wrong. Can you list steps for this novice?

Thanks!

[JesseWickizer]

You were on the right track, but as the warning message stated, "Features will continue to reference the old symbol until they are edited to reference another symbol."

So now that you've created a new symbol, you need to update the attributes of the existing annotation to reference the new symbol. Note the id number of the new annotation symbol in the symbol collection you created in the database. 

Then update the Symbol ID attribute of the annotation features to the new Symbol ID. 

Another way to draw annotation with a different text symbol without editing the geodatabase is to use symbol substitution. With symbol substitution you can substitute just the text color, or substitute individual annotation symbols with completely different symbols. 

Right-click the annotation layer in the Contents pane and select Symbology open the Symbology tab to configure Symbol Substitution.