Latest Contributions by MiaMassicotte

I have no trouble seeing your storymap - it's loading for me, Kent. I'm on an iPad. Mia ... View more

I completely agree with this. Even just to "print" a quick draft to proofread for corrections, errors etc a much compact printing format is needed.  Mia ... View more

I make a duplicate of my original iPhone Xr photos (if taken in portrait mode) and rotate it to landscape while it's still on the iPhone. That's the one I upload. it's pretty easy to tell in the photo selector which is the landscaped image.  When taking new photos, I hold my iphone in the 'camera' position so that the button is on the right. For me, these practices have resolved the frustrating and quirky automatic flipping problems where I couldn't get my photos to behave.  Mia ... View more

I used to have this problem with my iPhone photos, but not with photos I took with my iPad. Apart from EXIF. with iPad my normal camera position has button on the right, so device is *already* in landscape mode, hence my iPad photos dI'd not have this issue. But not when I took a photo in portrait mode with my iPhone (which seems natural as I'm holding the iPhone upright with one hand, button is at the bottom and image fills the whole screen). My fix might be old news to you, but now I hold my iphone in landscape -- as though I'm holding a camera -- with the button on the right; then no exif problem. Otherwise, I do make a copy and rotate to landscape mode to use it for uploading/sharing with the non-Apple universe. fwiw, Mia ... View more

It has happened with all of my stories in the new Storymaps that I create using my public account. I have to clear cookies a lot, and the application doesn't exit cleanly.  #Safari browser #arcgis story maps ... View more

Many times I run into "an unexpected has occurred", but as the last point in the workflow - i.e. last message during the 'save and publish' changes sequence.   Using Safari (13.1),  I got into the workflow of doing my changes, and waiting for the storymap "saving..." and "you have unpublished changes".  Then I would clear Safari cookies and reload the page to view and/or exit.     I had the sense that it might have something to do with the way ArcGIS logins work, and the way my Safari window and tab preferences are set up, but I have cycled through practically every iteration and this is what I have settled on for the time being: If anyone has suggestions for optimal settings for using Safari and logging into ArcGIS, and window/tab settings, I would welcome them. arcgis storymap safari browser Mia ... View more

I am so glad to see this discussion.  This has been driving me absolutely nuts.  Does a browser setting have any effect when creating the storymap?  I frequently change my browser zoom level and wondered if this was affecting anything. Safari Chrome A vexing issue I ran into occurred after I had worked on a particular map and liked the way it was functioning (filters, layers, etc).  I  used the "duplicate" function in the sidecar so that everything would stay centered, etc.   But later when I viewed the map(s)  in the sidecar after publishing, my duplicated map did not show the expected filters, labels or points.  what a head scratcher.   I discovered that I had to zoom in in order for any points and labels to show. But not always.  Sometimes its fine, sometimes not -- which makes me think it could be the browser zoom interfering?   On some of the map areas, I have to zoom in a lot to see a label at all.  I thought it might be something having to do with extent, but I had no idea how to deal with it. In the end, I added a note in my sidecar text as a warning "you may have to zoom in to see the label" which rather defeats the point.  I don't want the map to appear with none of its visual components, and expect the user to expand it full screen or zoom in before the effects "materialize". Your proposed "show the same map area vs show the same zoom level/center point" seems like it could offer at least an option to try. Mia ... View more

It may not pertain to your situation, but when this happens to me, clearing cookies and then reloading the page works.  Safari and Chrome, working on a Mac desktop.   I found that express maps in particular are very finicky in this way (load with a greyed out page).  Try doing all of your desired changes and publish them,  Clear your cookies. Then reload. If I then do more changes, I have to repeat clearing cookies.  hope this helps Mia #storymaps  ... View more

Mac user here - your pop ups are behaving as described on my iPad. Double tap opens; then also zooms in.  I opened in Safari and Chrome browsers, same thing.   hope it's a bug that gets fixed - I frequently encounter weird zoom/extent popup issues when building storymaps using my Mac desktop, fwiw  Mia ... View more

Hi Owen, Thanks. I do understand that not all formatting types are permitted in all blocks, eg Headings - those should normally be greyed out. Yes, I tried experimenting with different themes to evaluate the effects. In general I found the theme section divider insufficient for the purpose, primarily due to its fixed, short length - a personal preference, I guess. i found many examples of custom graphics being added to a storymap simply to demarcate sections better - since you can control the screen width that way. Maybe the + section divider could support the different widths, or have option to upload graphic- just a suggestion. The main narrative scrolls along in the center panel, with headings and subheadings. But I would welcome the ability to add additional formatting (eg color, bold, etc) to headings and subheadings inside Sidecar and Slideshow. If I add a Sidecar as an explanatory or deep-dive device, for example, it could benefit from additional visual cues -- distinguishing it from the main narrative. I found the sidecar incredibly suited to encapsulating a 'sub theme' if you will. Ergo, it would be nice to signal that my subtheme (or digression) is over, and now back to the main narrative. Thanks for clarifying that the copy/paste formatting thing is a known issue that is being addressed! My own workaround wasn't intended to bypass any conventions -- I simply needed to achieve a degree of internal consistency within different parts of my storymap. And the formatting quirks were preventing me from doing so. Hope some of this makes sense. I look forward to fixes and future iterations - thanks again -- Mia ... View more

Hi Owen, The existing formatting toolbar is very, very buggy -- at least, when working in Safari / Chrome on my Mac desktop.   My observation is that the issue seems to stem from a bug when trying to highlight/select text to change.  In my experience, it is not always possible to select/highlight text.  However, if I insert a Paragraph function (from the + menu), type in a few sentences in the default font, I am usually able to select/highlight text inside it in order to activate the little toolbar that you depict above.   But unless the desired text is contained in a paragraph, I found it is not possible for me to select/highlight text, change font, color, etc. in the customary fashion. This similar bug -- i.e., not being able to highlight/select at will in order to activate the small formatting toolbar -- affects adding/editing photo captions; adding/editing credits; adding/editing scrolling text, sidecar, slideshow, etc.   I've had this issue everywhere text is inserted.  My workaround:  Insert text using only the paragraph function (Content + menu at left).  Select/highlight desired text to activate the formatting toolbar, change color, add link URL, etc; then copy desired changed section to clipboard, go to the point in the story map where I want to insert heading or subheading, select Heading or Subheading from the + menu, paste.  usually that works.  But not always - its buggy.  And sometimes after I have been successful in copying formatted changes to a Heading, I can continue to change the formatting in the Heading or subheading. It was an accidental discovery -- I had some already formatted paragraph text copied to my clipboard which I had forgotten about, and went to insert a Heading - voila, my former changes stuck. My workaround does better in Chrome.  As mentioned, it doesn't always work.   Also found when trying to eliminate unwanted empty space (say, extra carriage returns got entered), that unwanted embedded formatting changes take place -- ie. a heading changes to a subheading or to a paragraph.  I have only elementary HTML/CSS knowledge, so my guess is probably something like trailing spaces or other bits of HTML interfere, like an unclosed span.   Hope I have supplied enough information for troubleshooting. Thanks Mia ... View more

Yes please - perfect for small projects and workshops. ... View more

Hi Owen. Ah, thanks. I’m reading this on my iphone, and at least now the ArcGIS link warns “mobile browsers currently unsupported” ☺️ Thanks again - ciao Mia Sent from my iPhone ... View more

Hi Owen, Here's a followup. ... View more