Legend in template has its own life

Question

I need to get constant design of my legends in a template, but I am almost every time surprised how ArcGIS Pro has its own interpretation of things.

It starts with that the legend in the template is locked (after I was satisfied with the look), but when I activate the template and choose another area of my data, the legend gets alive!
Here when everything is as it should be; legend is locked, and aspect ratio of the legend is linked

Now I am changing only the area of interest. I do not touch anything in the layout.

The width of the legend is the same, but the title is obviously wrapped, and the font size increased. Yet, when I have a look at the font size to adjust it, the setting is still at 14pt.

AubriOtis · Answer

As long as you have items that are dynamic (meaning they change with the extent) the legend will change with the extent. It has to as things get added or deleted. So the legend can't look exactly the same. However, you can use fitting strategies to determine what changes and how. For example, some fitting strategies allow the text size to change automatically, which you don't want. Other strategies don't do this. Using a fitting strategy without automatic text resizing may work better for you. The help documentation on fitting strategies is here https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/layouts/layout-fitting-strategies.htm. I also recommend this blog https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/tips-and-tricks-for-working-with-legends-in-arcgs-pro/, which shows how a single legend can look different using different fitting strategies in tip 4.

If there isn't a fitting strategy that fits your needs exactly, you can always submit an ArcGIS Idea suggesting a new kind. However, I think utilizing fitting strategies will get you what you are looking for, or at least much closer to that then what you have now.

TomGeo · Answer

Thanks Aubri for your reply.

You are of course right, and the Bygninger item are set to show only what is visible in the map at the time. I would say that's reasonable in terms of cartography. Turning that feature off goes against proper cartography and looking at the map with points of only a few classes instead of all sorts of them (as suggested by the legend) will raise some questions by the client...

Not using the feature, as a solution means to me the feature does not work properly.

It still escapes me, that I cannot set the legend to a specific width and height, lock it and it stays that way. I should be able to tell the program how the legend has to look, and not the other way around that the program is basically telling me that's the way "I think" it should look like.

Then there is of course the auto adjustment of the legends title, visibly altering the font size, thereby introducing a line break, but the settings still set to 14pt (in my case). Do you, or anyone else have a solution to that problem?

Bests Tom

AubriOtis · Answer

Hi,

I think I know what's going on here. It looks like the Bygninger legend item is set to only show features visible in the map extent. When you changed the extent the Industri og andet erhverv and Ubekendt features were no longer visible so they got removed from the legend. The legend then updated.

It seems that for your legend you don't want the items to update, you'd like the legend to remain the same. For that, I recommend setting all legend items to not update with the map extent. To do that select the legend in the Contents pane, right-click and choose Properties, then click the Show properties button to open the properties for ALL legend items (you can also adjust these individually). Then uncheck Only show features visible in the map extent.

Locking the legend doesn't prevent the legend from adjusting to changes made in the legend properties or in the map, it just prevents you from being able to select it on the layout so you don't move or resize it accidentally.

I hope that helps!