Creating images of ArcGIS Online maps

Question

Hi there,

I am an ArcGIS beginner and have been creating maps on ArcGIS Online. However, I am unsure of the best way to insert these maps into a Word document as an image. Any guidance on how to do this would be wonderful! Thank you.

BernSzukalski · Answer

Were it me, I'd just do a screen capture using any one of a number of options (I use Snagit a lot) and then just copy and paste into your Word document.

The things that will make a big difference are the size. If it's downsized in Word, you'll likely notice a degradation of image quality. So capture at a size that is closest to actual when added to your Word doc.

Better yet, use one of the map-centric configurable apps to create a live interactive alternative, and add a link to that in your Word doc, along with whatever graphic you want to include. Best of all worlds...

Egge-Jan_Pollé · Answer

Hi Kathleen B Schaefer,

1. The quickest and easiest way would be to create the image from the ArcGIS Online map viewer:

* In the ArcGIS Online map viewer, click the Print drop-down menu. There are two options available, which is printing only the Map or the Map with Legend.

* A printer-friendly web page of the map is displayed.
* You will soon discover that only the 'map' part is an image, which can be copied and pasted right away to your Word document. (The map viewer uses MAP_ONLY and PNG32 as the output formats.)
* If you want to copy the whole layout (i.e. including the title and the legend) you will have to take a screen capture to paste to your Word document.

2. A slightly more advanced way would be to build a Web Mapping Application (using the ArcGIS Web AppBuilder) and add a print widget to this app.

* The options in this print widget will allow you to set the scale, define the scale bar units, set a title, an author and copyright text, etc.
* With this print widget you can print the whole layout to an image (e.g. a PNG file) directly.

Hope this helps 🙂

BR,

Egge-Jan