Possible to show text fields as a text blurb in layout space?

[Andrew james]

Hi everyone, 

Thanks for your replies to previous questions. Working in local government here.

Say I have a point .shp file with points that I join to a table with text fields that have notes on the point feature.

Looking in to if it possible to take a field from the attribute table - a text field of 200-300 characters and display it as a text box in layout space, below the map? It would be linked and updated dynamically as the table data changes. 

Or would this be just a long label that is positioned manually?

Hope it makes sense - thanks

Andrew

[Emma Hain]

Hey Andrew

You can create the text box via the HTML source and use the data defined override button to source it from the attribute field. 

 

Kind regards

Em

Emma Hain — Product Manager/Senior GIS Analyst
em...@north-road.com

North Road Cartography • Development • Spatial Analysis north-road.com FOSS4G 2025 17-23 November, Auckland, New Zealand

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[Colin Mazengarb]

Hi Andrew, an alternative to Em’s suggestion is to have a table item that can be one field and based on an expression filter and with word wrapping. That way it will be dynamic. If you want fancy formatting then maybe the html route is better.

Cheers 

Colin 

Sent from my iPad

On 10 Sep 2025, at 7:27 am, Andrew james <andrewfra...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone, 

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[Andrew james]

Hi Em, Colin, 

Thanks for this. 

I can't quite build expressions referencing layers and fields to show in the HTML box. 

QGIS documentation is too general 

- do you have an go-to references/links for this by any chance?

Sorry, newbie with expressions! I do have a handle on intermediate coding though

Thanks

Andrew

[Emma Hain]

Hi Andrew

To add a table from your layers to the print composer, have you followed this? 

Composer Tables

Whilst not exactly what you are looking for, this may give you an idea of how html labels work:

Mixed format labels

Circular insets

HTML Reference

QGIS Doc

Kind regards

Em

Emma Hain — Product Manager/Senior GIS Analyst
em...@north-road.com

North Road Cartography • Development • Spatial Analysis north-road.com FOSS4G 2025 17-23 November, Auckland, New Zealand

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[Andrew James]

Thanks Emma, I'll give it a crack!

Andrew

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[Colin Mazengarb]

Andrew,

My previous suggestion in hindsight was a little cryptic. A fuller explanation:

1 Make a duplicate layer of your shapefile and give it a logical name to distinguish it from the other version of it

2 In the print Lay-out add a table item from the tools using the duplicate shapefile layer.

3 the full attribute  table will show but in the properties you can drop any of the fields to only show the field you are interested in. The field name can be changed or dropped at this point.

4 Now you will need a method to only show the record of interest, such as the last record or today’s date, something that is truly dynamic. One method is to make a filter for the layer in the map canvas. You may also be able to  create an expression in the layout item properties but without access to my computer I can’t remember.

5 If you need help with the filter provide an example of what distinguishing attribute you are wanting to show. 

6 once everything is set up properly then every time you open the project the text will be updated accordingly.

I am hoping this provides a better explanation. Let me know whether this makes sense.

Cheers 

Colin

[Andrew James]

Thanks Em,

The links were helpful. 

Noting a couple of things with your North Road article about HTML labels:

• H1, H2, H3 tags work as well
• I haven't tested <ul> and <ol> but this would be useful
• HTML formatting breaks any QGIS user styles. This makes page layout tasks more clunky; more work in design
• Blank labels are created if any field in a list is NULL; so one needs to go and create some conditional expressions in the midst of that HTML. This is a hassle. 

Thank you though, this is a good way to style labels for us.

Andrew

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[Colin Mazengarb]

Hi Andrew,

I posted some further information on the QGIS Australia website titled 

Mixed Format Labels for dummies!

You may find this useful as well if you are going down the html route. 

Cheers 

Colin 

Sent from my iPhone

On 22 Sep 2025, at 3:16 am, Andrew James <andrewfra...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Andrew James]

Thanks Colin, 

Could you send a link to that please?

I searched and couldn't find it. 

NB, please see my code posted yesterday, using html labels, 

Will follow up your earlier suggestion soon re: tables

Cheers

Andrew

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[Andrew James]

PS, found it, thanks
https://qgis-australia.org/2024/06/26/tip-mixed-format-labels.html