Map Layout Tips (Locator Map, Legend, North Arrow, Scale Bar)

this video is to demonstrate how to create a locator map in a new data frame first we need to add a data frame to our table of contents to insert data frame and then I'm going to rename it as locator map the next step is to say ok and then I'm going to right click and activate now that this data frame is activated and there's nothing in it there's no map to display if I were to reactivate the top primary map data frame then the information shows so I'm going to reactivate my locator map data frame now to add some data go to add data this is not my data of course you go to my data folders make sure I have the right drive I'm going to add my Washington base map project shape and now that I no longer need it in my primary map I'm going to remove it zoom to the layer to make sure I have it facing big came in is a actually not a bad color but I'm going to make sure I get a nice beige there's a beige and I'm going to remove the border say okay now it's a nice generic beige background map nothing fancy just to use as a locator map the next step is to tell this map to display a box where this map appears which is right around this area right click my locator map to preen click properties from the list of other data frames I only have one other I click on the primary map and move it to show extend indicator for these data frames I'm going to click on the frame and change this to first I like the red first thing I'm going to do is change to a point 5 line and then for some peculiar reason I have to change it back I'm going to go back to Mars red and then click OK and then apply lastly ok and for some reason the data frame indicator is not showing up and that has been a problem with arcmap 10 sp3 we're going to try to fix that first thing I'm going to do is haven't saved my map at a while I'm going to save it as lab 7 step nine point five because I'm about halfway through step 9 save I'm going to refresh to see if that will bring the indicator back and it does not think the issue maybe that you're not in display mode I'm going to click apply again say ok and if I go to layout view there's the symbol that's what we're looking for for now I'm going to go and go back from the layout to the data view and make some more changes I have completed step 9 even though I haven't done anything else I'm going to save as following the current directions lab 7 map to and say save know since I already have a map - I'll just change this to map 3 and click Save our next process will be to create the layout first step I've already mentioned go to the layout view which is this button way down here or view layout view in this case now that I'm in layout view both data frames can be seen this is the view in which will add scale bar Legend North arrow and neat line and perhaps some other items we will also adjust the placement very precisely so that the map looks exactly as we intend when we export it now that we're in layout view there again are two maps on the page right on top of each other which is okay for now and we do have that extent rectangle and 0.5 red in the layout view we also have access to a number of other tools that are not available in data view these are located on the layout toolbar and they include the zoom and pan tools that will zoom and pan the layout document without impacting the scale or extent of the maps and a draft mode button to dis to toggle between displaying your map graphs and the map graphics in the layout view or displaying placeholders for them by toggling the draft mode button on as you arrange your objects in your layout arcmap will not get bogged down attempting to redraw graphics ever after every change that is made there is no need to use it at this point because we don't have that many layers but beware of it and know that it's there in case you need it the toolbar to which I'm referring is right here this is the toggle draft mode these are the zoom in zoom out pan zoom whole page and these only affect the layout view they don't affect the map itself one of the easiest ways to move elements around the page is to click on this arrow and then click the data locator map and you may move the map wherever you'd like you may also grab a corner dongle and resize it you may grab a side dongle although the quarter dongles work the best just be aware of those options now I'm going to go back into the locator map properties and click on the size and position tab we'll set the size of the locator map frame and our layout and specifically position it on the page since this is a locator map we're going to keep it very small and square-ish we're going to set the size of the width which is right here - - and the height will try 1.5 and if I click apply it resizes it notice the map itself doesn't change just this small box I'm now going to tell the anchor point of this locator map to be the top right option and from here I'm going to enter in some settings of where the X and the y will be of this anchor point in this case I'm going to set the X to 8.1 and I'll set the Y to 10.8 and then click apply and the map immediately zips up to the top of the because we're setting the X&Y coordinates of this point right here and since this is in each is eight point one is right there and if I move this down a little bit ten point eight is right there which is why it lines up exactly where it has I'm going to click off the data frame after clicking apply and okay I click off of it and notice the box around it I'm going to open up the properties again to remove that frame go to the frame tab go to border and I'm going to remove that black border from around the frame click apply and okay there is a dashed line but that is only to reference that this is activated if I were to activate the primary map then the dotted line switches to the primary map switch switch the activate back to our map the locator map that we're working with I'm going to double check the scale of my primary map to do the so I must activate it and it is still set at one to 150,000 and it is grayed out which means I have set the fixed scale that's good I'm now going to set the positioning of the primary map by going to properties and the size and position tab I'm going to set the width at seven point seven inches and the height at 8.5 inches and apply and notice that the map gets bigger and well it seems to get wider but perhaps not as tall we're going to fix that in a moment to do so we'll click the bottom left anchor point which is already selected and we're going to change that to 0.4 X and point 4 for the Y apply and it lines the map up right here is for excuse me point 4 and point 4 which puts it right at the bottom edge of the map which is exactly what we're trying to do in this demo I'm going to demonstrate some rounding I'll go to the frame and set the rounding to 5% which will give a slight round to the border when I apply ok notice the frame is rounded a little bit if you like that look keep it if you don't like it feel free to change it just for this example I think I'll keep it to demonstrate keeping everything rounded while it may not look like it both of my maps are very close to where I want them for the final display of the map the final layout it's now time to add a neat line to my map which will surround all of the elements on the map I'll go to insert neat line I'm going to say place around all elements from place around all events to place inside margins and then I'm going to set the gap to 3 points which it is and then rounding since I used it previously I'm going to set the rounding to 5% double-check that this is a one point line I don't want it to be super thick make sure it's a one point black border and I'm not going to include any background or any drop shadow click OK and a neat line is added to the map at this point it looks as though our locator map is too high but we'll continue on and perhaps make a change to that a little bit later now it's time to add a title to the map there are a couple ways to do this I'll show you one way which is insert title and then we add the title by just typing it in and in this case I'm going to write farmers markets and Park locations in the North West Pierce County region double check for spelling and say ok notice that the title is too long in this case I'm going to place the cursor properties and retype the title and this is why I never use this I'm just showing you how this works but I'm going to retype it here because this is the one of the only ways that you could fix it farmers markets and park locations later in this lab I'm going to show you the way that I usually add my titles and here I'm going to place the cursor after the word locations and click enter and then delete to get rid of that space this divides the title into two lines to highlight my text click Change symbol and change this to size 22 font when it add bold in the sighs in the position tab I'm going to click the top left anchor which is right there insect the X 2.5 and the Y 2 10.6 after I click OK I may have to click this button which is refresh because we may have set the draft toggle mode there was some remnants of the both items in there now it looks appropriate you can definitely see that the locator map is too high it's actually covering the neat line and doesn't line up with the title it's easy to go in and change that it looks as though the Y is too high at 10.8 let's change that to 10 point 6 and apply and ok and now it looks much more appropriate we're still going to fix that area but at least where it's lining up now it looks more appropriate it's now time to add a scale bar if I were to add a scale bar with the locator map active insert scale bar and I'm just going to choose a very basic scale bar perhaps this one and say okay notice that this distance is two hundred and sixty some odd miles that is appropriate for this map but not for this one which means I obviously added the scale bar when the locator map was selected or activated in this case I just hit the Delete key activate my primary map insert scale bar I'm going to choose the same one and say okay and now the scale bar is much more appropriate 0 to 5 miles that's perfect it has a nice round number easy to understand that's the scale bar that I'm going to keep and for now I'm just going to leave it in this position you may right-click it for properties in this case the vision units are set for miles I'm going to change the label position below bar and see what that looks like click apply and now I have miles beneath the bar which gave me give me more room elsewhere I'm going to keep it like that feel free to make yours any way you'd like and say ok I'm now going to place it just to the left of my locator map like so I think that looks pretty good there for now I'm going to add a North arrow I always use very simple North arrows cartographic best practices say pretty much eliminate ESRI North 9 unless you want your map to be for children and comical avoid the very fancy schmancy ones technically it should have an N and an arrow pointing north I'm choosing North arrow 11 it ends up right here in this case I'm just going to put it right here to keep it out of the way doesn't distract from the map and it works there for now the next step is to add a legend to the map you do so by heading to the insert button and clicking the ledge I'm already activated on my primary map because I can see the lines these options become available and arcmap knows to probably include all of these items my job is to determine which of these elements belong in the legend and which do not I'm going to choose farmers market farmers markets parks streets and highways everybody will be able to tell that water bodies are in the water are the blue I'm going to move water bodies to the left and the same with regional topography I now have farmers markets streets and highways and parks it's easy to order these items click on the one you'd like to reorder and I'm going to move it up one so that I have farmers markets parks streets and highways in that order there is a preview button if you'd like to preview what your legend is going to look like here's my preview it comes up in a very awkward place but I can see that it might be working out ok I'm going to click the preview again to turn off the preview one column is sufficient we could add multiple columns here I'm going to click Next to advance the legend title page if you cannot see this you may still be on preview which only allows finish if you turn off preview then you can click Next there are two ways to not display the word legend one is to delete this portion here and I'm going to show you another method as well later as we click Next through the steps of the legend I'm going to click Next to advance to the next step again if you don't see the next button then click on the preview so that the next the finish button becomes the next book going to add a one point border the gap is the amount of space left between the edge of your legend box and the text in it there may be no need to adjust the gap here but if we need it we'll come back to this area and set it right now the gap is set at 10 now I'm going to click preview to take a look at our legend it's very difficult to see but it's starting to look appropriate there is no legend and it's fairly easy to read and this is where you're going to need to decide if you want a border if if the legend is going to be up here which I plan to place mine I probably don't need a border so in this case I'm going to remove the border feel free to put it wherever you'd like there's plenty of space down here just don't cover up the farmers markets I'm going to undo the preview we'll come back to this area in a second for now let's just click Next this is a special area where you can change the minut spacing in all of these different areas notice how I click each item the spacing bar changes these are my new details that we won't set now but you can go back and set when you start creating your own Maps we won't again we won't select anything here we can click preview take a look at our map again turn off preview and then click finish our legend does not include the title legend but if it did we right click go to properties click on the legend and then unclick legend tab and then unclick the show button and then anything in here would not show I'm going to click apply and show you that notice there nothing shows up now it's now your choice of where you would like to put things if you put your legend down here you should right click go to properties and then in the frame add a background of some color perhaps gray click apply and then you can see your legend much better I encourage you to experiment and place it wherever you'd like you'll learn more by doing it on your own for now I'm just going to keep mine very simple in the hopes that all of you come up with your own layout that's a little bit there we go there's some more modifications we're going to make to our map though I still I do have it pretty well lined up the way I'm going to keep it in this case I'm going to go back to my legend click on it right click properties from here I'm going to go to items and go to parks I'm going to click on style from style I'm going to choose properties so that I can change the default patch instead of a basic square or rectangle I'm going to override in general tab override the default patch by clicking in that box and choosing Park or preserve which will give the map a little bit of flair so to speak click okay okay apply and now my park symbol is a little bit more interesting than just a biggest basic swatch click OK again and I have cleaned up my park symbol you still have a slight issue with this locator map I'm going to activate it and then work with the scale up here I'm going to try several things first one to ten million and when I do that there's it's still a little too big so if I try one two three million it's definitely way too big with the ten million the best course of action is to go back to the data view and then move it around a little bit in this case I'm going to narrow it down to one to three million with my mouse and then click back over to the layout view and it seems to look pretty good right there although look what happens it changes to 1 to 13 million 687 5,500 it looks like it could get a little bit bigger in which case let's bring it down to 1 to 13 million will go and we've done this before customize this list 13 click Add click on it say ok and then choose the 13 million it looks a little bit better maybe 12 million work customize 12 million add click on it ok and try 12 million that looks pretty good yours may be different though what I suggest you do is click off of the arrow and move to the pan pan the map a little bit to make sure that you get the you have the whole map because this doesn't tell us anything and this doesn't really tell us anything this is probably a good place to have it once I get that in the right spot to prevent me from messing it up or moving it you can go to properties and then fixed extent and it locks it in to that extent I say apply okay and now I can't even get to the pan button that I can't move it which is exactly what I want to do if I were to activate the primary map the pan button is still available but the scale buttons are not it's still the right scale but I can still move the map if you'd like to refocus your map a little bit then you may do so that just about covers setting up your layout I think that's all that's left to do is to save it and you'll be on your way feel free to play with the settings modify things change your layout this is not a required layout it would be great to see other different layouts to see how people design their map you do get points for creativity based on how great your map looks

Channel: Gregory Lund

Views: 18,609

Rating: 4.5999999 out of 5

Keywords: GIS, ESRI, GIS311, Geographic Information Systems, Video Tutorial, ArcGIS, Layout, Legend, Scale Bar, Locator Map

Id: MqaSUP4p9_o

Length: 30min 32sec (1832 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2013