"May place labels outside polygon boudary" not working

[jbcypreste]

Hello! I'm trying to place labels (Maplex is ON) using the "May place labels outside polygon boundary" for small areas. But nothing happens if I tick the box, the label still collides with the polygon. I tried increasing the polygon boundary weight to 1000 but it also doesn't work. See image for context.

[wayfaringrob]

I'm fairly certain the polygon boundary weight only impacts the labels of other layers. I've run into situations similar to this; it would be useful if you could tell it to also apply to the layer itself. I'm not sure that there's a great solution at the moment. You could try making a copy of the layer with transparency turned all the way up? And set a weight on that?

[wayfaringrob]

Another solution might be to put your layer through the feature to point tool and label that point layer. There's a parameter you can check on that tells the software to make sure that the point it generates is within the polygon. Keeping the boundary weight on your polygon layer, the point label will then likely place inside if it has room and outside if it does not.

[jbcypreste]

That would be the most viable option, yes. Since I'm working with only 2-3 features at most at the same time, it doesn't bother me that much.

[BarryNorthey]

Perhaps check/adjust your Fitting strategy --> Overrun settings.

I find that when I encounter a labeling problem, in a pinch, converting labels to annotation gives me more control as in being able to move the text/annotation to where I want it.