Editing the attributes of annotation

You can edit annotation attributes in the Attributes window, which provides access to the record values in the attribute table. When these edits are made, the BLOB element is updated and you can see the change to the annotation's display. You can edit the following attributes in the Attributes window:

FeatureID	Bold	Angle
AnnotationClassID	Italic	FontLeading
SymbolID	Underline	WordSpacing
Status	VerticalAlignment	CharacterWidth
TextString	HorizontalAlignment	CharacterSpacing
FontName	XOffset	FlipAngle
FontSize	YOffset

These attributes cannot be edited at the database level with SQL code. When these fields are updated through ArcGIS, it results in changes to the feature's BLOB element that SQL does not trigger. When you update these fields using SQL outside ArcGIS, the text symbol fields associated with each annotation feature for all the updated rows do not update. To perform these updates outside ArcGIS, ArcObjects must be used.

Learn more about updating data using SQL

1. Click the Edit tool or the Edit Annotation tool on the Editor toolbar and select the annotation.
2. Click the Attributes button on the Editor toolbar.
You can also double-click an annotation feature with the Edit Annotation tool to open the Attributes window.
3. Click the Annotation or the Attributes tab. The Annotation tab allows you to make multiple changes and preview them before applying them, while the Attributes tab provides a grid of attribute fields and values.
4. If you are using the Attributes tab, click the value you want to change—for example, TextString. Type the new value for the attribute.
If you need to update the text for feature-linked annotation, update the attributes of the origin feature (for example, the attributes of the line the annotation is linked to) from which the annotation is derived. When you do that, the updates are reflected immediately in the annotation feature's text. If you directly edit the TextString property of the annotation feature itself, your changes will be overwritten if the attribute on the linked feature is modified later.
5. Optionally, modify other attributes, such as the font or font size.
6. To change an attribute value for more than one feature at a time, select all the annotation features you want to change, click the annotation layer name, then set the values.
7. If you are using the Annotation tab, click Apply to commit the changes. If you are using the Attributes tab, the changes are updated as soon as you click away from the field.