Producing a complex map using ArcMap’s Layout View

Producing a map for publication is a fairly simple process in ArcMap–if you only wish to display a single ‘map’ without a legend, insert map, etc. However, if you wish to produce a more sophisticated map, things become a bit more complex. A review of the steps required in generating a more complex map layout is presented below.

ArcMap does make it as easy as possible to produce a publishable map that combines maps, tables and charts, but you do have to think carefully about all of the components and steps required to produce a more complex layout (and this is where naming the Data Frames with meaningful names becomes very important). For now, I’ll lead you through the process of producing a map that shows two thematic maps (or satellite images) along with a legend, title and attribution. Instructions on how to create two Data Frames are presented here.

In ArcMap, the Layout View is where you create publishable maps. It works much like Adobe Illustrator or any other vector drawing program. However, the scale and presentation of the map in the layout is a direct representation of the Data View window (in particular the List by Drawing Order representation)–if you zoom into an area on the Data View window, the image in the Layout view changes accordingly (i.e., they are ‘hot linked’). Therefore, it is necessary to have your maps properly laid out in the Data View window before proceeding to the Layout View window (and remembering that if you make any changes in the Data View they could significantly impact your Layout). Also, the ratio of the data view page’s width and height may be different than that of the document (e.g., the 8.5″ by 11″ page on which the map will be printed), so getting the published map the ‘right’ size is often a matter of trial and error. Hint: Creating a BookMark once you have the map appropriately displayed in the Data View / Layout View will enable you to quickly go back to the original display.

Your first step is to create a Data View with the themes displayed in a meaningful order, and the themes and legend entries titled appropriately within each Data Frame (it may save you time later if you remove all unnecessary layers before creating the layout).

• In the Data Frame Properties window (in the View pulldown menu or double-click on the data frame name) you should change the name of the data frame to something more meaningful.
• You can also change the layers’ names to something more meaningful–right-mouse click when over the layer name and select Properties / General from the set of choices.
• You can also change the symbol used to represent the layer by left-mouse clicking on the current symbol, or by selecting Symbology in the Data Frame Properties window (you MUST consider issues such as significant digits in the legend entries–the values displayed in the legend should be commensurate with the data).
• Fine tune the view’s scale by explicitly setting the scale to an even amount (e.g., rather than printing a map with a scale of 1:144,727, set it to 1:150,000 by typing in the value in the scale window).
• Repeat this process for each Data Frame. Instructions on how to create two data frames are presented here.

Once you have the two Data Views laid out properly, select Layout View from the View menu. By default, ArcMap creates a layout with a single data frame on it. However, since  we have two Data Frames defined, ArcGIS assumes that, in this instance, we want to create a layout with both data frames displayed. Therefore, it creates a Layout with two data frames present, but unfortunately not in a cartographically-correct manner. For this tutorial we want to have two equal sized data frames to hold the two maps (coming from each of the data frames), plus at least one frame to hold the legend (note: if the two legends are not identical, you will need to add a frame to display the second legend) and one frame for the attribution text (the lab #, course name, your name and student number, the date, the sources of the data). While we will need to add some of those elements individually, ArcMap has a predefined layout that contains most of these elements available.

To create a more complex layout, look for the Change Layout button on the Layout toolbar. Click on the button (it is the 2nd last right-most button on the toolbar), and then select PortraitModernInset.mxt from the list of Traditional layouts (you may need to scroll the list of template types in order to view Traditional layouts). Click on Next. You will be shown a preview of the view frames (although the preview shows one large frame and three smaller frames, we can adjust the size of the frames later in order to ensure that the two maps are displayed at the same scale). The Data Frame associated with the first set of data should be associated with the 1^st frame, while the Data Frame associated with the second data should be associated with the 2^nd frame. Click on Finish.

You should see a layout with four blue boxes–the large one containing the first map/image, three smaller boxes along the bottom of the layout (one containing a Legend, one empty, and one containing the second map/image), and a title bar across the top of the layout. Note that when working in the Layout View you must use the Layout toolbar to zoom in, etc.–attempting to use the Data View zoom tool, for example, will not produce any results.

Before manipulating the sizes and positions of the view frames, and adding the second legend (if necessary), etc., the default page size for the layout you have just created should be set to letter-sized paper–do so by right-mouse clicking outside of the data frame, selecting Page and Print Setup and setting the page size appropriately. Before changing the map paper size, however, ensure that you have selected

We can use the Data Frame Properties Size and Position tab of the data frame’s properties to ensure that the two frames (showing the two maps/images) have the same width and height, so that a single scale bar can be used for both maps; ensure that you have indicated “preserve the aspect ratio” before altering the data frame’s size. I have found that a height around 5 inches works best (you can place one frame in the upper right of the page and the other frame in the lower left, with a bit of overlap). The legend(s) can be placed to either side of the map frames.

You may need to add a second legend (you can copy / paste the blue frame box that the first legend was placed in and use it for the second legend), a north arrow and scale bar to your layout (all of these elements can be found under the Insert menu when the Layout View is active), add any explanatory text to each layout, and fill in the empty layout frame with the attribution text. You should also title the map appropriately, and fix the legend presentations.

Once you have fine-tuned the layout to your satisfaction, save the ArcMap Document (File, Save or Save As), and then print out your map.

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Map Elements