ArcView practices practice 7 creating a layout and report in arcview

Practice 7: Creating a layout and report in ArcView
ArcView Steps 46
Step 1 Making sure View properties 46
Step 2 Getting started: opening Layout 47
Step 3 Using layout tools 48
3.1. Add a view 49
3.2. Add a legend, a scale bar and title 51
3.3. Add other graphics to the layout 54
3.4. A important tip for creating layout (I) 55
3.5. A important tip for creating layout (II) 56
3.6. Printing or exporting an ArcView layout 57

In ArcView, layouts are maps you create for printing (or other media like slides, digital
graphics, etc. A layout will contain your map view, but also title, legend, north arrow, other text
information, and even other graphics like charts or photos. Using a layout, you can produce some
very high quality and impressive presentation graphics. The below is a simple example of the
output.
This session's practice, therefore, aims to explore the layout and printing procedures as the
final stage of ArcView GIS practice. As you are familiar with the data management, mapping and
spatial analysis functions of ArcView, you need to create a report map and document containing
your ArcView work. However, if you need detailed directions regarding how to create layouts, the
best source is ArcView's online help (if you want to refer, go to the Help menu and choose Help
Topics, click on the Contents tab, then go to Laying Out and Printing Maps)
ArcView Steps
Step 1 Making sure View properties
Firstly, start ArcView, start a new project, add a view and set the working directory (to
'c:\temp'). Add the themes of the last week's network analysis practice from the directory
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'c:\arcv32\arcview\Av_gis30\avtutor\network\ ('customer.shp'; 'delIoc.shp'; 'hospital.shp';

's_fran.shp'; and 'shorelin.shp').
Now, you can see the themes on your View window and change the view name as "Hospital
service areas" or your O\Vl1 title using 'View properties' (for this, select Properties on the View
menu bar). Before you begin layout, make sure your View Properties are set, especially the
View's name, the Map Units and Distance Units (set to 'decimal degrees' in the Map Units and
'miles' in the Distance Units).
Step 2 Getting started: opening Layout
A layout is a map that lets you display multiple views, charts, tables, and graphics and then
formats them for printing.
On the Project window select the Layouts icon and then press the New button. A new layout
will appear in your project like the below


A picture of a blank page appears. Maximise this layout window by clicking the icon on the
Window ( ) so you have plenty of space. The very first thing you should do is to set
up your page size. That will determine how you fit the other things onto your layout (map, title,
etc). To set up the page size, choose Layout menu from the menu bar, then select Page Set up
menu.
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After clicking the menu, you will see the Page Set Up pop-up menu like this,

After that, you can see several choices for changing layout formats. For changing layout
orientation, choose landscape Orientation icon (
) on the menu and press OK
when finished. After that you can see the change
in your layout display from portrait to landscape.
You can give your layout a name by choosing

Properties menu on the Layout menu bar. This is
especially useful if you are going to be creating
more than one map, since the default names of
Layout1, Layout2, Layout 3, etc. can get
confusing.
Step 3 Using layout tools
Presently, ycu have a blank but landscape
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format layout in your window. In order to create amap on the laycut, you need to us e the Layout
Tools on the menu bar. At first, you can see the Placement Tools. The tools you see dropping
down are yoor placement tools. Use each of these to place various obj eels onto your layout.

3.1. Add a view
To create a map for output containing
geographical data, you must first add a view to
your layout. To add a view, at first, you need us e
the globe tool ( ) to place your View (the
actual map). Before you start, you need to check
the View window, in which all of the themes are
activated. If they are not, you cannot put the
themes on the layout. Then, you identify the
changed cursor shape (+) when you click the glob
e tool and move the cursor to the layout. At now,
place the mouse key in the position where you want the themes to put on the layout, and then
press the mouse button and drag to the other position For example, you can place the mouse key
in the upper-righter comer and drag it to the lower left corner.
.

After releasing the mouse button, the View Frame Properties Box is brought up. Make sure
you connect this View Frame to the View you want to be displayed (not an empty view), and set
the other parameters such as scale, display and live link.
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For Scale, to print the View exactly as you see it in the View window, choose
'Automatic'. To preserve the existing View scale, as displayed in the View window,
choose 'Preserve View Scale'. To plot or print at another specified scale, choose
'User-specified for Scale', and then type in the scale you want. Live Link on the View Frame
Properties means that any changes you make to the View will be reflected in the layout. If Live
Link is checked, the connection between the view and the layout is preserved. For example, if
you change the symbology in the view, or if you turn a theme on or off, the change is reflected in
the layout. For Display, it is useful to refresh the layout frame. There are two choices, When
A
ctive and Always. When you choos e When Active, the view frame will refresh only when the
layout is active (i.e, it's the uppermost window in ArcView). When the layout isn't active (i.e, when
it's not the uppermost window in ArcView), the contents of the view frame won't redraw until the
layout is made active again. This saves time when you are working with a live-linked view that
contains a large number of features, because ArcView won't draw them in the layout each time
you change your view. Otherwise, you can choose Always option - The view frame will refresh
whenever there is any change to the view.
To delete or change the dimensions or modify the frame properties of any of these o~cts after
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you have already placed them on your layout, click on the selection tool ( ), then click on the
object on the layout to select it. Press the delete button to delete or grab onto one of the corners

or sides to resize. Click in the middle somewhere to move. Double-click to change the properties.
To see the results of your placements more closely, use the zoom in tool- this will zoom you into
the page . If you want to see the page at its actual size, choose Zoom to Actual on the Layout
menu bar or choose one of the zoom tool bars


3.2. Add a legend, a scale bar and title
After adding a view, you can see add a legend to the layout The legend will show
the symbology for the themes that are displayed in the view. To create the legend,
use the tool, .The way of positioning the legend is the same of the way of Step
3.1, pressing your mouse button and dragging your preference position. After
releasing the button, this brings up the Legend Frame Properties Box. Also make
sure you connect this to View you want to be displayed and click OK



Like in Step 3.1, you can resize or move the position of the legend on the layout by clicking on
the selection button Also you can change the Display option, either When Active or Always.
When adding a scale bar, there are number of different styles supported by ArcView. After you
select a view to associate the scale bar to , you can select the type of units, interval values and
number of intervals that the scale bar will have. To display the scale bar, select . from the
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Placement Tools (the exactly same way of selecting the global and legend bars above). After
positioning your mouse curse by dragging, you will get the Scale Frame Properties Box. Make
sure you connect it to the correct View (See the below View Frame).

Note that you can change the Units to be any units
you want the ArcView program will convert from the

original map units of miles to Kilometres or other
units. Interval means how Long you want the little
breaks on the scale to be. The left side of the scale is
broken up into smaller interval s, so Left Division
means how many of these small intervals you want .
Play around with all these properties to see what they
do.
ArcView has a variety of ways to place text or
labels on a view or layout. Labels and text are only
slightly different in that labels get their text from an
attribute in a theme, while text is determined by you
typing in the text you want to show. The diagram
shows the tools and examples of the kind of text or
label they add to a view or layout. When you are
satisfied with the geographica lly based parts of your
layout, you can add a title to it. To add a title or add
information on the layout, you need to use any of
these to place text.
To add the title of your layout, choose the first text icon ( ) and then, you can see the
changed the mouse Curse shape, (I). Move the mouse cursor to any position you want to write
the title text and click your mouse button. Then, the Text Properties box is shown. You can type
your title text On this properties box and click OK
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Note that to change the colour, font size, etc., of any labels on the View or on the Layout, first
use the Select Tool ( ) to select the text object you want to change (hold down the shift key to
select multiple objects). Next go to Show Symbol Window On Window menu bar Or double click
on graphic.

In the Symbol Window, click On the Font Palette to select font type, sue and style. To
change the colour of the title text, go to the colour palette
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After selecting and positioning the themes on your layout, you can also resize by entering
numeric values instead of using the selection tool, which sometimes cause troubles to position at
the best side. Choose Size and Position menu on the Graphics menu bar and then, you need
type a relevant value representing your position. Note that using this menu, you can position all of
the graphic symbols on layout including text, scale bar, legend and view.
3.3. Add other graphics to the layout
There are a number of additional "standard" graphics you can add to your layout. You can
place both ArcView tables and Charts on the layout if so desired in your output product. You can
also choose from a provisional list of north arrows, or import a file from another graphic package
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into the layout.
To add a north arrow, you need to use this tool, ~ and then you can choose an arrow type
from the north arrow manager box. To draw any additional graphics on your layout, you can use
the drawing tools

Now, you can create some really high quality and interesting maps this way and
compare the below map I created.
3.4. A important tip for creating layout (I)

In ArcView, there is another way to create a layout using Template manager. Layout template
contains predefined settings for layouts, which greatly facilitate making layouts in ArcView. For a
given project, you may want to define a layout, and save it as a template so that you will not have
to go to the trouble of redefining the setting for each Layout you create. There are two ways to
experience the Template layout - one is from Layout window and another one is from View
window. At first, with the new Layout active (before starting, you should create a new empty
layout), click on Layout menu on the ArcView menu bar and then scroll down to Use Template
from the menu and choose your choice (i.e. Landscape).

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After clicking OK button on the Template Manager menu, you can see the blank layout like
below. However do not panic because you should already familiar with the ways to create a
layout through steps 3.1 - 3.3.

Using the selection button, , you can fill the maps you want. Move your mouse curse to
'<Empty View>' section and double click. Then, you are asked to select your target view, which is
exactly the same procedure of the View Frame Properties (Page five). After choosing your view,
the layout automatically shows the view map with a scale, legend and north arrow. You can also
change the types and position of the frames . For <Empty Title>, you can also type a relevant title
and change the text font, colour, size and other detail s (refer to pages 9 - 10).
3.5. A important tip for creating layout (II)
Now, you will experience another good tip to create a new layout from the View window.
Unlike the above ways, you should select View window and check the View properties details
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such as Map Units and Distance Units. Then, go to the View menu and scroll down to Layout

menu and then click the menu. This brings up the Template Manager menu choose a relevant
layout type. Then, it will ask you to choose either 'New Layout ' or existing layouts. Choose '<New
Layout>' and see the new layout format and how do this method compare with the other
methods?
It is noted that the creating layout requires artistic skills rather than sophisticated analysis
techniques in GIS. However, the documentation of your analysis results is also a critical point for
interpreting your solutions. The better the map created, the greater understanding of your
analysis results is provided!

3.6. Printing or exporting an ArcView layout
When you are finally satisfied with your layout you can send it to a printer. You should already
have set your page properties in ArcView as the first step in creating your layout – if you have not
already done so, return to Step 2 or check with the Page Setup menu on Layout menu bar.

After you have created a layout, use the Print Setup command on the File menu bar. The
interface below will appear with the following options:
For Printer Name, you need to know which printer s of the university network are connected to
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your department or your username, which should be appeared on the 'Printer Name'. If you are
not confident, ask assistants or computer managers of your department. When you select an
appropriate printer name (type), the name, the status condition and the connected location will be
appeared on the Printer Setup menu board. For Paper Size, A4 paper size is normally used for
printing your layout to a paper map. If you set a special paper size, be sure the printer type and
Paper Source. Also, you should have set Orientation as the first step of creating a layout. For
now, you are recommended to choose 'Landscape' layout format. Finally, make sure that your
setting for paper size and orientation match what you specified for your layout. Then, click OK
button to print your layout. Good luck!
We have several printers and plotters (if your departments have ones) available that export

your layout at different formats. It is important that the exporting task require a big disk space.
Therefore, if you really want to export your layout to other file formats, you are recommended to
save the file into c:\temp rather than d: directory due to limited your disk space. In general, there
are two ways in ArcView one is to export to a digital format and another one is to print to a file.
To export your layout to a digital image format, use Export menu on File menu bar in the
A
rcView Layout window and then, choose Windows Bitmap for example. Then, you should type a
suitable file name (i.e. week8) in File Name in the Export pop-up menu.
Also, you can choose the export file resolution by selecting Options on the Export menu. After
clicking Options, you are asked to choose a relevant resolution value in Windows Bitmap Options
pop-up menu. For example, you can select 144 DPI (Dots per Inches) resolution and click OK
button. Now, you come back to the Export menu and then, click OK to finish the export your
layout to a picture file.

You can check where the exported picture file (i.e. week8.bmp) is in your directory (i.e.
c:/temp). If you cannot find it out, ask instructors to trace the file. You can open the exported file
on other document software such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on. For example, when
you open 'MS Word', go to Insert on main menu and scroll down to Picture and then, select From
File submenu. After that, you search the exported picture file you saved and are able to insert the
picture file on your Word document. You should practice to familiar with this step on other
software packages such as Excel, PowerPoint or others. If you are not success, ask the
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instructors to complete it.

Otherwise, you can also create print to a file which you can then print on computers that don't
have ArcView. In this case, choose Print To File from Print menu on the File menu bar. This will
create a new .ps file (postScript) that can be printed on any computer connected to the target out
device. To print, go into a DOS session and type copy filename.ps lptxxxx (with xxxx being the

appropriate printer port).

.


Last modified: Oct 25, 2009
ERS 120: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems /