Lab 7: Adding map elements and preparing to export In addition to the data, there are several components you want to add to your map to make it more useful and attractive when you export it and/or print it. These elements include: A grid surrounding your map with latitude and longitude coordinates; A location or index map that show where your map is in relation to other things; A scale, scale bar, and north arrow; and A legend that displays all of the symbols and colors that you use. This lab will walk you through adding all of these features, and the next one will go through exporting different formats. One feature you should be aware of if you is the different ways you can view your aren’t already layers in the Table of Contents. Clicking on the icons presents the layers differently. I spend most of my time with the left-most one selected, which lists the layers in drawing order (in other words, the layers that are on the top in the list are on top in the map). So select if it is not already selected List by Drawing Order – this allows you to more easily determine the visibility of layers and what is overlying what. Preparing your map for print/export The first step is to start thinking about your map as turning into a physical document rather than a dynamic digital document. Launch ArcMap and open your map. If you already aware of it, you want to make sure you know about the two ways to aren’t view your map in ArcMap: data view and layout view. You toggle between these in the lower-left corner by clicking on these two icons: . Data view is on the left, and layout view is on the right. Click the icon on the right to switch to layout view. Notice that this also opens a Layout toolbar: . The Layout Toolbar has many similar icons to the Standard Tools toolbar: like zoom buttons, the hand for panning, etc. But using the zoom buttons on the Layout toolbar zooms in and out of the not the map. In other words, the scale of the map page, would stay the same. This can be a little confusing at first, but you will want to become accustomed to working with these two different but similar toolbars.
Lab 7: Adding map elements and preparing to export In addition to the data, there are several components you want to add to your map to make it more useful and attractive when you export it and/or print it. These elements include: A grid surrounding your map with latitude and longitude coordinates; A location or index map that show where your map is in relation to other things; A scale, scale bar, and north arrow; and A legend that displays all of the symbols and colors that you use. This lab will walk you through adding all of these features, and the next one will go through exporting different formats. One feature you should be aware of if you aren’t already is the different ways you can view your layers in the Table of Contents. Clicking on the icons presents the layers differently. I spend most of my time with the left-most one selected, which lists the layers in drawing order (in other words, the layers that are on the top in the list are on top in the map). So select List by Drawing Order if it is not already selected – this allows you to more easily determine the visibility of layers and what is overlying what. Preparing your map for print/export The first step is to start thinking about your map as turning into a physical document rather than a dynamic digital document. Launch ArcMap and open your map. If you aren’t already aware of it, you want to make sure you know about the two ways to view your map in ArcMap: data view and layout view. You toggle between these in the lower-left corner by clicking on these two icons: . Data view is on the left, and layout view is on the right. Click the icon on the right to switch to layout view. Notice that this also opens a Layout toolbar: . The Layout Toolbar has many similar icons to the Standard Tools toolbar: like zoom buttons, the hand for panning, etc. But using the zoom buttons on the Layout toolbar zooms in and out of the page, not the map. In other words, the scale of the map would stay the same. This can be a little confusing at first, but you will want to become accustomed to working with these two different but similar toolbars.
7_map_elements_2014.docx