Since Cartographica originally shipped, it has been easy to add labels to features. However, the labels haven't always been powerful. With 1.2, we're changing that. Labels can now contain more information with better controls of font and style. Here we give you a rundown on what you can look forward to in the beta and release of 1.2.

Cartographica 1.2 contains quite a few changes to the style editor, and one of the largest is the new label editor. In previous versions, you could choose a label field by selecting it from a pop-up menu and the contents of that field would be used as the label for each feature in the layer. This worked reasonably well, especially if you needed only a simple layer. Also, if you knew that it worked that way, you could bring up the font panel and change the font information about the label.

In Cartographica 1.2, things are a bit more complex, but we hope just as easy to use. The pop-up has been replaced by a text box titled "Item Label". In this box, you can put static text and the contents of fields. To add the contents of a field, use the "Insert Field" popup to select a field name and the field indicator (a colored shape with the name of the field embedded in it) will appear in the Item Label box at the text insertion point.

One thing that you'll notice immediately is that this means you can put the contents of more than one field in a label. Further, you can type additional information into the field, and you can use returns in the field to create multi-line labels.

Another nice thing about the new labels is that styles can be assigned to any element separately. So, you can use bold on the text that you insert, and you can italicize the contents of one field, while using a different size font for a subtitle.

And, as usual, you see updates to the labels in real time and have full undo capability. So, play around with the next text labels and see how they can enhance your maps!