How to rotate text in ArcGIS by any chosen number of degrees?

Question

I want to add a textline to my map and rotate it by about 160 degrees, but when right-clicking the element and selecting rotate/flip there is only the option to rotate by 90 degrees (100 US degrees). Is there a (non-scripted) way to do this, or perhaps a simple workaround?

The short text shall be put near one of the edges of a polygon, but does not belong to a specific feature that I want to label. I suppose I could make a new feature class and draw a line along the edge of the polygon, and then label it, but I am wondering if there is a better way to do it.

Answer 1

Insert text > Properties > Angle 160

Answer 2

with labels you can use an attribute value to define your rotation (but I think that you'll need Maplex for that)

With annotation, you can add the annotation editing toolbar, and rotate your annotation with the Edit annotation tool

Click the Edit Annotation tool Edit Annotation on the Editor toolbar and select the annotation.

Right-click and click Rotate Mode, or press the R key. The pointer changes to a rotate symbol.

Click and drag the text to where you want it placed. The text rotates freely about the selection anchor. You can also press the A key to enter a specific angle for the rotation. You can change the rotate mode pivot point by dragging the selection anchor to another location. To rotate and snap the annotation to another annotation or feature, turn on the secondary selection anchor. Press the S key to toggle this secondary anchor point on and off. You can move the secondary anchor the same way you move the selection anchor. When you have positioned the text where you want it, right-click and click Finish Rotate Mode, or press the R key again

Answer 3

As @radouxju says if you are using Arc10.1 or later you will have access to the Maplex Labeling engine to label a feature.

Within the properties you can set the label rotation either as a fixed value or based on a field in the attribute table of your layer.

This aticle will explain further: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00s800000037000000