Set word wrapping on legend when using both labels and descriptions?

Question

I'm wondering if there's a way to set the overall word wrapping on a legend?

My roads here use the label for FFC and description for road type. Those look fine, I'm happy with those being the max width of the legend. I'd really like my last (and in theory, all) legend item(s) to wrap to that width, and normally, if I were just using labels, I could just turn on wrapping for those and set my width. Doing so here, however, makes the labels act as a column, bumping my descriptions over and making the problem worse.

I can reduce the width of the label wrapping to get the Roads looking better, but that doesn't help me with the rest of it. It makes those look worse yet.

Ideally, there would be a toggle for setting an overall word wrap width - for labels and descriptions, should a layer have those, combined. But I'm not finding that. I'm also not finding an option to wrap just one layer; it's all or nothing.

I can't convert to graphics, either, since this legend is used on a map series that shows different items depending on the bookmark.

Just a little lost with this strange behavior and wondering if there are solutions. Thanks.

wayfaringrob · Answer

@TomBole  Thanks Tom. I wound up just putting the description into the label and dealing with the somewhat imperfect alignment of my descriptions.

TomBole · Answer

Hi Rob,

You ask if there is a way to "Set word wrapping on legend when using both labels and descriptions?"

As you probably know you can do this with a 2 clicks at the legend level and it applies to all layers.

From the help topic Arrange a Legend.

Currently, there is no way to apply word wrapping for both Labels and Descriptions in a single click.

Reading further in your post it looks like you'd want to set wrapping at the legend item (layer) level - different wrapping values for different legend items. Currently, this is not supported in Pro. I believe this is how word wrapping has worked for Data Driven Pages in ArcMap and how it has worked Map Series in ArcGIS Pro. Sounds like a good candidate for the ideas site.

Unfortunately, having all your legend items in a single columns restricts your options as I'm sure you have already discovered. You'll probably need to move to a multiple column legend and play with with layer order and the spacing between columns and or legend item parts to get a better legend.

Another possible solution it multiple legends (each with different legend items and with different wrapping values). In this case you will need to know the full extent (which map series page fully extents the legend) in order to avoid pages where the legends overlap. It is possible to create a sperate legend for each legend item if you want. Doesn't look like you are working with that many layers, so this might be an option.

Hope this helps,

Tom