Creating a Map Layout from Start to Finish - Get Into Layout View
Primary tabs
- Overview
- Get Into Layout View (active tab)
- Page Orientation
- Print Preview
- Map Data
- Pan and Zoom Data
- Symbology
- Guidelines
- Group and Align Elements
- Labels
- Legends
- Map Credits/Date
- Neatlines
- North Arrows
- Projections
- Scale Text/Bars
- Titles, Subtitles, and Add. Text
While there is no "real and correct" way to work through creating a layout (cartographic product) in ArcMap, this guide will show you one logical flow of going from data analysis completion to exporting a PDF of the final product. This guide will also show you some tricks in Layout View, such as how to align objects and how to pan/zoom the data participating in a layout vs. how to pan/zoom the entire layout page (aka. the entire map itself). Use the links on the left to jump to a desired section.
Switching from Data View to Layout View
Within ArcMap, the data analysis portion of your project is completed in Data View while the creation of a cartographic product/map/layout is completed in Layout View. The two views are kept separate and you are allowed to bounce back and forth between the two.
- Please note that in ArcGIS for Desktop (aka. ArcMap and ArcCatalog) you are only allowed one layout per MXD. This means that if you need to make a different layout, for example - a different size of the output map, a different basemap, or a series of different cartographic elements, you'll need to do a "Save As..." to complete a different layout. Changes in your layout are permanent, and you can only use the Undo action back to the last save point.
- ArcGIS Pro (introduced and used in Intermediate GIS), however, allows for multiple layouts within a single project (MXD).
There are two main ways to change from Data View to Layout View - via the View menu in ArcMap or via the buttons found at the bottom of the actual data frame (not the Data Frame Properties)