How do I position annotations in a figure with respect to the axes in MATLAB 7.2 (R2006a)?

When I place certain types of annotations using the ANNOTATION function, they are positioned relative to the figure rather than the axes. This is unexpected since I plotted the data relative to axis x and y rather than to the normalized position within a figure.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

Some annotations created with the ANNOTATION function are positioned relative to the figure coordinate space rather that the axes coordinate space. These include arrow, doublearrow, textarrow, and ellipse.

You can use the attached function named "axxy2figxy.m" to transform coordinates from data (axes) space to figure space. After downloading the attached function, use the following code to illustrate its use:

figure,line

[axx axy] = ginput(2); % click 2 separate places within the axes.

[figx figy] = axxy2figxy(gca, axx, axy);

har = annotation('textarrow',figx,figy);

[Adam Danz]

The annotation function needs to have a data-units option. The need to plot in figure units is relatively infrequent and it greatly limits the utility of the otherwise useful annotation() function.

[Adam Danz]

Good to hear. Thanks for the update, Dan.