Best way to Index features on a wall map

Question

This seems a rather basic issue, but it's been about 15 years since I last had to deal with this!

I am creating a traditional road map of a county, and I would like to place the street index and point of interest index on the 42x62" wall map face.  Eons ago, this was done via graphics packages (Illustrator, Map Publisher, etc), but I'd have sworn I read it somewhere that it was now possible to do this within ArcMap.

Question is, is that only an option in ArcMap Pro?  I'm still in Arc10.8.1.  Is it even an option at all in any Arc platform?  Or are commercial map publishers out there still using Map Publisher (or another graphics software program) to create their final product layout with insets, index, etc outside of Arc?  I used to work in retail mapping many years ago, and I'm currently just playing around at home making my own map base (we've all got covid-hobbies, right?!)  If you have any insight on current processes, and any tips on how to effectively create an index grid within my working gdb, I would love to hear it!  Thanks

dutchgator · Answer

Thank you Josh, that appears to be just the kind of GP tool I was looking for!  However, now I can't get past errors when I go to run the tool, it says all my various projections aren't matching, or the standard1:24K xml template annotation isn't compatible - I've tried a multitude of combinations  of primary and ancillary trying to get them to match the xml projection , no luck so far.  I'll keep plugging away, only way to learn some of these things, but if folks know of other custom xml grid templates out there on ArcOnline somewhere (as the help doc mentions but doesn't actually tell me where!) I'd appreciate it.

Is it possible to bring what I've done in Arc10.8.1 over to Pro and do my finishing that way?

jcarlson · Answer

There is a tool to create an index grid in both Pro and ArcMap that work well enough for creating a grid for your map. You can then use a dynamic text element to create something like a POI index, showing which grid cell they fall in, etc.

It's possible in both programs (though easier in Pro, IMO) to create the whole thing, insets, index, and all, without leaving the program, but some of the best maps I've seen do their final adjustments in something like Illustrator.