6b. Layout setup

1. Introduction

2. Setting up your project

3. Creating data (first steps)

4. Creating and editing data

5. Creating polygons

6. PREPARING A PRINT-QUALITY MAP

6a.  Layer arrangement

6b.  Layout setup

6c.  Adding map elements

6d.  Prepping your map for export

6b.  Setting up the Layout

Once you’re happy with how the map looks here, we’re ready to go to the layout.  If you haven’t explored around and noticed this yet, ArcMap has two separate views under the View menu.  Everything that we’ve done so far has been in the Data view, when creating a finalized map; you’ll want the Layout view.  The Layout view is similar to programs such as Adobe Illustrator, but done in ArcMap.

1.  Go to View –> Layout View.

2.  Here you’ll see your map drawn at some arbitrary scale, mainly so it fits the page.  This isn’t ideal, so let’s fix the scale that the map is drawn at.  Go to View –> Data Frame Properties, and select the “Data Frame” tab.

3.  Under “Extent” select “Fixed Scale”, and choose a scale appropriate for your map.  The example map here is going to use a scale of 1 : 10,000.  Click “OK”.

4.  Using the arrow tool , you can adjust the size of the map layout’s bounding box.  If your map disappears from view, simply use the pan hand  to bring it back.

5.  To get a reference on the sizing for your layout, choose View –> Grid to place an inch grid on the page.  NOTE:  This grid is NOT the same as the coordinate system grid you’re going to apply in the next step.

NEXT:  Adding map elements

Previous: Layer arrangement

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