Info Creating a Layout in ArcGIS Pro

Mark Patterson

Whenever you create a map in ArcGIS Pro, you MUST create a layout that contains all 10 required map elements and follows the map design requirements. This guide will show you how to add and modify all of them, as well as give you some suggestions on where to place them.

Inserting the Layout

Before you can add map elements, you need to have a layout on which to insert them.

Inserting a new layout — There are many more layout options, but the two you are most likely to use are **ANSI - Portrait: Letter** and **ANSI - Landscape: Letter**.

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the New Layout button under the Project group and click it.
You will see a number of page size and orientation options for your layout. You will generally always use an 8.5" x 11" letter size, but the orientation depends on the shape of your map body. A long map body will generally use a landscape orientation, while a tall map body will generally use a portrait orientation.
When deciding which orientation to use for your layout, think about where you plan on placing all the map elements, and keep in mind two of the map design requirements: minimize white space and minimize overlap.

Creating Guides and Adding a Neatline

After inserting the layout, you need to add a neatline which will contain all your other map elements. Having guides will help you place it accurately. Guides are lines that do not print with the final layout, but help you "snap" your map elements to them while creating the layout.

Add guides for neatline — These guide options will allow you to place a perfectly aligned neatline with plenty of room inside for the other elements.

Right-click the ruler above the top of the layout and click Add Guides.
In the dialog box that appears, select Orientation as Both, Placement as Offset from edge, and Margin as 0.125 in. Click OK to add the guides.

You will use the guides to place your neatline.

Adding a rectangle — The **Rectangle** tool

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the Rectangle button under the Graphics and Text group and click it.
Draw a rectangle from one corner to the opposite so it "snaps" to the outer set of guides. If it doesn't snap the first time, you can click, drag, and resize it until it does.

Neatline in place — The neatline has been placed and lines up perfectly with the guides.

Depending on how you plan on placing the rest of your map elements, you may want to add more guides in different places before you move on.

Hiding guides — You can choose whether or not you want to see your guides.

If your guides ever get in the way of seeing your layout, just right-click one of the rulers and uncheck the box next to Guides. The guides will still function even when they are not visible. (NOTE: Do not click Remove All Guides unless you want to permanently remove the guides.)

Adding a Map Frame

You will add your map body to the layout in a map frame. When adding the map frame, remember that the map body is the most important part of your map and should take up the most space.

Adding map frame — If the zoom or extent of your map is not quite right in the thumbnail, don't worry. You can fix that after you add it.

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the Map Frame button under the Map Frames group and click it.
In the drop-down menu, you will see different extent options, including any bookmarks you might have created. Select the thumbnail containing your map and its symbols.

Deactivating the map frame — This map is obviously not zoomed to its full extent, so you would want to fix that before moving on to the other map elements.

Use your mouse to draw a rectangle on the layout where you want your map body to go.
To adjust the placement and size of your map frame, click and drag the frame itself or the handles on its edges and corners.
To adjust what you see within the map frame without changing its size, right-click it and select Activate. While the map frame is activated, you can pan and zoom the map just like you would when creating it.
When you are satisfied with what you see, click the Back button in the upper-left hand corner of the layout to return to the normal Layout view.

Adding a Title

The title tells your reader what the map is all about. It should be in a prominent area and in a large font.

Adding rectangle text — The **Rectangle Text** button

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the Rectangle Text button under the Graphics and Text group and click it.

Adding a title — In this map, the map body takes up about the rightmost two-thirds of the layout. The title is placed in the most prominent place remaining: the upper-left corner.

Use your mouse to draw a rectangle on the layout where you want your title to go.
Type in the text you want for your map's title.

Whenever you have a text box selected, the Format tab appears on the ribbon to help you format it. There are many options under the Format tab, but the ones most relevant to formatting the title are under the Text Symbol group.

The format tab and text symbol group — The options for formatting text resemble what you might see in a word processor such as Microsoft Word.

Your exact choices for your title's formatting will vary based on your overall placement of map elements, but you likely want to choose as large a font size as you can, a bold style if possible, and a centered alignment.

You may need to highlight/unhighlight the text and click in and out of the text box for all your formatting choices to register - the interface is somewhat finicky.

Adding a Legend

The legend explains what all the symbols on your map mean. The reader will probably be looking back and forth between the map body and legend frequently, so you should place the legend in a fairly prominent place.

ArcGIS Pro can create a legend for you that will include every layer on your map. If you go back and edit your map after creating the layout, the legend will automatically update as well based on your changes.

The legend button — The **Legend** button

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the Legend button in the Map Surrounds group and click it.

Adding a legend — In this map, the legend is placed under the title to take up about half the remaining space in the left column.

Use your mouse to draw a rectangle where you want the legend to go.

The default legend is probably not very attractive or well-aligned with the rest of the map elements. Like text boxes, the legend also has a Format tab that appears whenever it is selected so you can customize it to your liking.

Unlike text boxes, though, the legend has many different parts that you might want to customize individually. The Format tab has tools for you to do that.

Applying specific styles — Selecting the **Layer Names** heading and then applying a bold font would make only the layer names bold and leave the rest of the legend unchanged.

Under the Current Selection group in the Format tab, click the drop-down menu to see all the different options. If you want a style to just apply to a certain part of the legend (e.g. the layer names), select it under Current Selection then choose the appropriate formatting options.

Styles that you apply with Legend selected in the Current Selection box apply to the legend as a whole; however, styles that you apply to specific parts of the legend "override" the more general styles.

Adding the Scale Bar and North Arrow

The scale bar and north arrow are important tools for the reader to understand the map's scale orientation, but they do not need to be front and center. You can place them off to the side.

The north arrow and scale bar buttons — The **North Arrow** and **Scale Bar** buttons

Both the scale bar and north arrow can be inserted from the Map Surrounds group under the Insert tab. For each, click the lower part of the button to see a gallery of design options, and choose the one you prefer.

North arrow and scale bar added — This map uses a simple scale bar and north arrow that don't draw too much attention with their styles or their placement.

Just like for the other map elements you've added, use your mouse to draw rectangles on the layout where you want them to go.

The scale bar and north arrow have Format tabs, which are for formatting their appearance and text, and Design tabs, which let you deal with their relationship to the map body. For example, the Design tab for the scale bar lets you choose which units (miles, kilometers, etc.) are used and how many subdivisions the bar has, and the Design tab for the north arrow lets you select which "north" you want to point at (such as magnetic north).

Use the Format and Design tabs to make your scale bar and north arrow attractive and consistent with the styles you've chosen for the rest of your map elements.

Adding Map Credits

The last four essential map elements - data source, projection, author, and date - are the least visually important elements, so they should all be placed out of the way. It is up to you and how you have crafted your overall map if you want to place them all in one corner together, split up in both bottom corners, or any other place.

Under the Insert tab on the ribbon, find the Rectangle Text button under the Graphics and Text group and click it.
Use your mouse to draw a rectangle on the layout where you want one or more of your map credits to go. Type in the text you want for your map credit(s).
Use the Format tab to make your map credits consistent with the rest of the map.
If you are not placing all the map credits in the same place, repeat until you have placed them all.

You will probably have no trouble supplying the information for the data source, the author, and the date. After all, you know where you got the data, who you are, and what date you are working on the map.

However, you might have a little trouble with the projection credit. It doesn't help that a projection is sometimes referred to as a coordinate system or a spatial reference instead.

Opening the map properties — The tabs needed to move between the map and layout are in the upper-right hand corner of this image.

To find the map projection, leave the layout and go back to the map using the tabs at the top of the layout. (NOTE: these are not the tabs on the ribbon.)
In the Contents pane, right-click Map and click Properties.
In the dialog box that appears, click Coordinate Systems and note the coordinate system listed in the Current XY box. This is the projection that your map uses. Click OK and use the tabs to return to the layout.

As a beginner, you will likely accept the map projection given to you. However, as you become more advanced, choosing a map projection will become part of the process of creating the map itself, so you will already know the map projection long before you create the layout.

Exporting the Layout

With all 10 essential map elements placed in appropriate locations and formatted consistently, your map layout is now officially complete! All that is left to do is to export it.

The Export button — The **Export** button

Under the Share tab on the ribbon, find the Layout button under the Export group and click it. The Export pane appears.

Example export settings — These settings are only an example. **Always** choose the correct file type, name, and location based on your assignment.

Select the appropriate file type, file name and location based on the assignment you are working on. Leave the other settings as the default and click Export.

Viewing an exported file — In case you have trouble finding the location you saved your file to, the **View exported file** button comes in handy.

When the export is complete, click View exported file to view it. Make sure that everything you saw on the layout in ArcGIS Pro is still there in your exported map.

If you are creating layouts in ArcGIS Pro for the first time, you may find the process of adding every single map element, placing them perfectly, formatting each one, and checking your work to be arduous, and you may wish you had step-by-step instructions every time. However, as you repeat the process more and more, you will become very familiar with the tools available to you and be able to produce technically perfect maps like the one below quickly and regularly.