Show/Hide Labels

This command shows or hides the label of each selected object. Most Sketchpad objects can show their labels, with a few exceptions such as grids, measurements and calculations, captions, pictures, and loci of objects other than points.

To show or hide labels:

1. Select every object whose label you wish to show or hide.

2. Choose Show Labels or Hide Labels from the Display menu.

Using this command is equivalent to clicking on an object with the Text tool.

The keyboard shortcut for Show/Hide Labels is Ctrl+K (Windows) or z+K (Mac).

When you measure a quantity that depends on a particular object, the object’s label may automatically be shown if it’s needed to display the measurement. For instance, if you measure the angle defined by three points, the labels of those points may be shown. Use the Text panel of Preferences to turn this automatic showing of labels on or off.

An object is labeled automatically when the label is first needed for some purpose—either because you’ve chosen the Show Label command, because you’ve clicked the Text tool on the object, or because you’ve measured some quantity that depends on the object. Thus the first point you label will become point A, even if it’s the tenth point you’ve actually created in your sketch.

Although you can’t show or hide the labels of measurements and calculations, you can control how they are named when they’re displayed, using the Value panel of the Properties dialog box.