idea ArcGIS Pro Legend Options in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:27:32 GMT

Can we have some more control over creation of Legends? Specifically I'd like to have the option when creating a Legend to have all items turn OFF by Default. I'd also like a "Select All" so I can quickly create a legend with all Items On or Off by default. Ideally I'd like a Create Legend with only items I want to be included actually created in the Legend. I think Allowing certain "universal Legend" setting to take place at creation could save time. For example, I'd like to be able to choose the Default Legend Text (before the legend is created), I'd like to choose the default Option of Showing a Title and what that default Title should be (before the legend is created), I'd like the default options of what Legend items I want to be turned on - descriptions, headings etc, (before the legend is created).

I know the developers were probably trying to avoid too many wizards and streamlining things but Legends are one area where users need more control and not just after the Legend is created - we need to be able to control HOW our default Legend creation looks. I wouldn't even mind "Legend Templates".

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 23:29:11 GMT

Has there been any traction on this?

Legend creation is still rather cumbersome. A settings dialog where we could set how legend creation occurs would be extremely helpful.

If there are ways to accomplish what I'm looking for can anyone point me to a tutorial or resource?

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

Anonymous User — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 18:23:26 GMT

I've discovered that I HATE arcgis pro legends. I'm trying to create 3 legends with identical formatting. I can copy and paste the formatted legend, but as soon as I change the source data the legend reverts back to its ridiculous default formatting with huge fonts and patch sizes. Having a legend template or being able to modify the default formatting would be wonderful. There are way too many choices and clicks if you have to keep repeating the same thing over and over to get a series of matching legends.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 19:01:23 GMT

Pam,

I'm right with you.

Legends are an example of where I am VERY critical of the UI design team. It's clear that designers were NOT doing real paper map creation in a typical setting. I'm considering migrating some of my work-flows back to ArcMap until the design is re-worked.

One specific example is I need to produce 5 simple plat-style maps for locations on a regular basis. The locations change so new plats need to be generated for each location.

In ArcMap I could create a "template" for each of these - including Legends, then literally find the new locations, change definition queries, and the Plat titles to reflect the new locations, export to .pdf's, and I was done. In PRO the same process requires me to:

Create a new Map and a new Layout for each plat in my project. This is five new maps and five new layouts. I know Projects can be as big as we want but in ArcMap I could have one template for each different plat, make my changes to the template and export my .pdf and be done.
Next I have to recreate the Legend for all five layouts for each layout because of exactly what you describe. For each legend (since there are no legend creation default options) I must:
1. create a new Legend, Un-check all of the data elements I do not want in the legend since they all come over even though most of the elements in the plat do not need to be included in the legend.
2. Set my Legend to have a background and a border.
3. Set the back ground and border buffers
4. Set all of the Legend Fonts to Times New Roman because they all default to Tahoma
5. Check that I want the Legend Title included, that I want it Times New Roman and Centered - since none of those options are available as a universal set property.
6. Check that only elements in the view are included in the legend since that is unchecked by default - and again - there is no ability for us to set this universally.
Finally I have to export each layout separately because there is no option to export multiple layouts at once - even though we can open multiple layouts at once.....

My example is rather simple but the key is that I must do this 2-3 times a month. When you compare the time it takes, and the complexity of the work-flows, it's absolutely better to do this in ArcMap.

If ESRI is serious about PRO being the new flagship of GIS and map production they should have evaluated simple repetitive workflows. I've worked in GIS 17 years and what I'm doing, (or very similar), is pretty bread-and-butter for multiple organizations in different disciplines. In fact, it's so bread-and-butter one of the companies I worked for in the past actually wrote an ArcMap extension to more or less replicate my use case above. They sold that extension to several different agencies in the Federal government so I KNOW what I'm doing is a pretty normal, real-life, example of how a lot of people USE ESRI products.

Apologies for the rant/long post. I am really TRYING to migrate and adopt PRO. I've figured out how to use the product but I'm continually frustrated that what I used to do is now more difficult, more complex, requires more checks/clicks on an "improved" product. It would be one thing if my work-flows were unique, but I know they are not. I think many people are waiting to migrate. Right now, even though I see the direction ESRI is going with PRO - and generally agree with the direction, the application is really lacking in some areas. Legends are definitely not an improvement at this point in PRO. They are in fact, in my experience, a significant decline in my productivity.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

Anonymous User — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 20:00:18 GMT

I've wasted a whole day trying to get this to work in Pro. Am giving up at this point and going back to arcmap, since pro is far from being ready for prime time. Just seems very clunky that a program won't let a person copy an item and do one simple change without destroying all the formatting you've done. I even tried creating a legend with every possible map layer in it along with all the formatting, hoping I could simply copy this main legend and remove the items I didn't want. I selected 3 items for the legend but only one was included. I guess because I have 3 different map frames. Aarrgh.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

Anonymous User — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 13:47:20 GMT

We should alsao be able to order items, without links with layers. I would like to create legend group with line and polygone in the same group, for example...

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

EglantinaDani — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:13:20 GMT

For anyone that still has this problem, I solved it by creating a layout with the settings that i wanted, than saved it as a layout file (template). This way I can import it as many times as I want through arcpy.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 21:06:01 GMT

Just a followup to one specific part of my original Idea

Specifically this part of my original idea: "...Ideally I'd like a Create Legend with only items I want to be included actually created in the Legend".

I discovered that this is possible buy selecting, (highlighting), the items in the TOC you want to have added to your Legend when you create it. If you do not select anything in the TOC, the default behavior is that PRO adds everything in the TOC to the legend.

Please note that it has been 9 months since I submitted this idea and I just now discovered this. The fact that it took me 9 months and a LOT of created Legends to learn this suggests that this behavior, while VERY welcome, is NOT Intuitive. I wanted to post this partial solution here in order to help others that are struggling with Legends.

I still do not know how to set other default legend properties upon creation and I still hope to see some of that functionality in an upcoming release.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

Anonymous User — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 22:45:11 GMT

After working extensively with layouts and legends in Pro, I can totally agree with your statement about the software not being intuitive. It just seems clunky when you are trying to set paragraph formatting for Titles and Layer Names and there are paragraph formatting options in at least 4 or 5 different places. I struggled many times trying to remember where I found a particular setting for something (some of them are quite buried), and wasting a LOT of time looking for it or reading help screens. I'm usually pretty adept at picking up new applications, but this one is leaving me exhausted.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

ShaunDillon1 — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 13:28:32 GMT

Yet another basic issue which is making me seriously consider waiting a year before I start using "Pro"

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

Anonymous User — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 19:25:39 GMT

I'd wait for a bit. It is sort of a pain to keep flipping back and forth between Desktop and Pro. I have 2 sets of files for a handful of projects - one for Desktop and one for Pro because when I run into another limitation of Pro I have to go back to desktop. Gaaa.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

RustyNichols — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 14:27:58 GMT

Pro in my opinion still has a long way to go. Things like Legends just don't work correctly. They are pushing hard in my org. to use PRO. I to have dupe maps in Desktop and PRO just because things simply don't work, or just not there.

And why do change things that don't need changing for instance the display elements like border and background you change the X,Y gaps units from points to inches???

and what's with the grips??? It took awhile to add catalog back in and 4 some odd years before getting free text and graphics in production so this is probably on their backburner...cheers!

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SimonApostol1 — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 19:59:18 GMT

This is truly maddening. At my work we often need to reproduce a full set of maps for reports that must have the exact same layout styles. Changing one item such as a label in a legend item and having the entire legend revert back to default formatting is unacceptable for a software that purports to be used for any kind of document production. I want to like Pro, but some very important parts of the UI are clearly afterthoughts.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

RustyNichols — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 13:33:52 GMT

I have a project and of course the layout has a legend... This legend I tried using the drop shadow, didn't like it and took it off... so i set the offset back to 0. saved the project. and everytime I open that project it has a drop shadow!!! like I never switched the offset back to zero!! but before I can print I have to set back to zero then save...EVERY TIME!

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

AndrewKinlock — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 13:34:05 GMT

I agree that the ArcPro legend options are not quite as intuitive as I would like them to be. I am having a hard time trying to figure out how to rename the Legend Items taken from a specific field. For example, I have a Call Type for our Fire Department symbolized by an NFIRS number series: 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. Since the map is not being made for those not familiar with the number series, I need to change the number series to text that anyone could understand. So in the Legend, it would look like: Fire, Overpressure Rupture & Explosions, Rescue & EMS, etc. -respectively. In ArcMap, you would just need to hover over the item, click once, and rename the legend item/symbology name. There does not seem to be that type of choice with ArcPro.

The only work around that I can think of is to create another text field that holds the descriptions for that number series, but then I would need to re-symbolize everything again. Am I missing something?

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:00:09 GMT

Andrew,

The way I handle this is to change the description of the elements in the symbology interface. The Legend updates from that.

So if I’m following your example, if you symbolize by NFIRS number, you’ll need to change the description of the number in the symbology. So if NFIRS number is 100 but that means “South Metro Fire District” for example, you’d click on the NFIRS symbology interface and in the Symbology description , right-click and change the description from 100 to “South Metro Fire District”. That change will update your legend.

Not as easy or intuitive as ArcMap but it gets the legend to show the way you expect.

Hope that helps.

Sean Hlousek

GIS Manager

1001 17th Street Suite 1250

Denver CO 80203

39°44’56.52”

104°59’36.43”

303-226-9516 (O)

303-565-0224 (M)

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

AlderMaps — Thu, 28 May 2020 21:11:15 GMT

Work with a legend item—Layouts | Documentation

Not sure if there has been some progress in Legend settings since many of these posts were made, or if it may be more a matter of people expecting functionality like ArcMap, finding that it is not, and becoming frustrated without really accepting that Pro is a different product, it functions different, there is a learning curve, and it will take some research, learning and time to become efficient with the new interface. I've made a lot of maps in both ArcMap and in Pro, and I cringe every time I have to go back to ArcMap (e.g. a client needs an MXD plus a map). From my experience, Pro provides much more fine-grain control over the legend.

A legend is potentially a complex element: you can have simplicity of creation or you can have a high degree of customization. You can't have both. Pro has opted to make legends highly customization, and I'm happy about it.

I don't think the interface is quite perfect yet (I came to ESRI today looking for a way to save default text settings in the legend, because I too was annoyed by the giant default font size. Found the answer in the link above). Some items could be a little more intuitive. But as far as I'm concerned it's a giant leap forward from ArcMap.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

SeanHlousek — Thu, 28 May 2020 21:49:36 GMT

Misti,

Thank You for the link. That is a good source for various Legend Properties and ways to customize legends.

The functionality I was originally looking for is still not present in Pro. (That I am aware of).

I'd like to be able to set "universal" default legend properties so when I create a new legend SOME of the properties will already be set. I'd like this functionality at the application, (not project), level.

For example, I make my legends with a solid, (usually grey) background, with a .1 inch X and Y border and background gap. The default setting in Pro is a transparent background with no X or Y offset so EVERY time I create a legend, I am re-setting these values. This example is just three settings and like you say, Pro DOES offer some good customization. (The link you provided goes into details on those controls). But, that level of customization means there are a LOT of settings that require tweaking or adjusting with each legend you create.

I'd like to be able to set some of those settings "globally" so I have to do less "legend-tweaking" with each one I create.

I agree with you that Legend control has improved between Arc Map and Pro, (although I still miss the check-box where I could define at which point in legend items where a new column would begin).

I'd just like some ability to set behaviors for all of my projects so I don't have to repeat the same steps.

By The Way: Since the posting of this idea I have learned that you CAN control which items are included in a new legend by highlighting the items you wish to include in your Table of Contents. If you do not highlight any items, Pro includes ALL Items by default. This functionality has saved me a LOT of time in the past couple of years!

-Sean

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options

AubriOtis — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 20:56:20 GMT

Hello,

We have legend styles and legend item styles in our near-term product plan for Pro. These styles would allow you to create a legend from an existing jumping-off point instead of from scratch each time. This would include options like always having a legend title on, or a background color. These styles can also be used across projects and shared with other teammates. It won't address adding all items turned off, or only adding specific items, but there are some tricks in the existing software for that.

If you select layers in the map and then add a legend, only the selected items will be added to the legend. In the Contents Pane, if you expand the legend and uncheck the first legend item to turn it off while holding the Control key, all the legend items will be turned off.

You can also find more legend tips and tricks on this blog: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/tips-and-tricks-for-working-with-legends-in-arcgs-pro/

With the information about upcoming styles and the options already provided in the software would it be okay with you if I mark this as In Product Plan? Or are there pieces here you don't feel are addressed and should still be noted as ideas?

Re: ArcGIS Pro Legend Options - Status changed to: Implemented

AubriOtis — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:15:23 GMT

With the introduction of legend styles in ArcGIS Pro 2.9, I'm going to mark this as implemented. These styles should address any remaining concerns mentioned in the original comment.