How to create callout/balloon labels in QGIS 2.0?

Question

I'd like to use callout/balloon labels for a vector layer in my GIS using QGIS 2.0. The only way I can see to do this is to position an ordinary label where I want it and then draw an empty text annotation box behind the label. I've tried using an HTML annotation but I can't work our how to link to a feature attribute using HTML - I understand that I could use [% "attribute name" %] in the label (this results in a blank label), but how do I include the layer name in the html?

I'd really appreciate some help. My apologies if my question isn't clear - I'd be more than happy to provide further details if necessary.

Thanks

Answer 1

http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/EasyCustomLabeling

Essentially what it did was to create another layer of centroids and the label text. You moved the centroid to where you wanted it. There was no symbol for the points in that layer, they were invisible but the label was turned on and visible. Then the plugin could make a line between the new centroid and the old point position, creating a third layer of lines. These were formatted as arrows. I expect you could do the same manually. As a plugin, it just tidied all the steps into a workflow.

EDIT

See also these plugins, to complete parts of the workflow

http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/LabelLayer/

http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/pointstopaths_v02/

Answer 2

Someone answered my question in a way that could help you using html annotations. QGIS html annotation relative paths under layer properties, display, you can insert the html to be displayed when hovering over features.