# Annotate block name in RenderView
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [October 24, 2024, 10:03am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626 "2024-10-24T10:03:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fra](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/fra)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 10:03am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/1 "2024-10-24T10:03:58Z")
Hi,
I have the following use case: I have an OpenFOAM case, which I am reading through the native Paraview reader that treats it as a multiblock dataset. Is there a way to show in the RenderView some kind of ‘tooltip’ that shows the name of each block, e.g. when I select it in the Multiblock Inspector? I know that the OpenFOAM plugin adds this functionality, but I don’t find a lot of sense in recompiling all of Paraview just for that. Moreover, this could be interesting to apply to multiblock datasets in general.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 11:46am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/2 "2024-10-24T11:46:36Z")
I can see the block names using ParaView 5.13.1 with the motorbike dataset:
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### Author:  [@fra](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/fra)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 11:56am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/3 "2024-10-24T11:56:40Z")
Sorry, I realise now I might have been a bit unclear. What I meant is to have an annotation _in_ the RenderView. I made a simple sketch with the cavity case to illustrate what I mean:
I don’t know how complicated it is to implement this, to my knowledge is basically the only feature that paraFoam has that has not been ported to the native PV reader.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 11:59am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/4 "2024-10-24T11:59:11Z")
Interesting idea, I’m afraid you need to do it manually using the TextAnnotation source.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 12:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/5 "2024-10-24T12:35:20Z")
Not exactly what you asked for, but you can Ctrl-left-click on a block and the context menu that appears will show you the name.
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### Author:  [@fra](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/fra)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 12:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/6 "2024-10-24T12:57:17Z")
I was thinking about it mainly for visualisation (screenshotting) purposes, but I understand. I will also try to give a look to the paraFoam plugin that does it and see how it’s implemented, I guess the complicated part is to get the label to “stick” to the block it refers to. Thank you anyway, I appreciate the help!
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### Author:  [@joint](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/joint)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2025, 7:20am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-block-name-in-renderview/15626/7 "2025-01-24T07:20:11Z")
Hello
Have you succeeded in your search?