topic Re: Labels exported separately in Interactive PDF in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Labels exported separately in Interactive PDF

MKSiar — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:25:15 GMT

I am trying to export a map to an interactive PDF. Most of the layers making up the PDF are polygon or point shapefiles that have been labeled normally as a feature layer. However, when I go to export the PDF, each shapefile shows as a separate layer that can be toggled on and off in the PDF, but all of the labels have been combined as one “Labels” layer in the PDF. Is it possible to configure the shapefiles and/or export parameters such that the labels of each shapefile can be individually toggled on and off with each shapefile layer in the PDF? Thanks for any help in advance.

Re: Labels exported separately in Interactive PDF

Robert_LeClair — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:36:17 GMT

As I understand it, the workflow as described in your question is not possible BUT you can export the labels out to an annotation feature class first. Once the annotation feature class is created, it will be added to the Map View in ArcGIS Pro. Then select the annotation feature and the associated vector layer and GROUP them together. Export the Map View out to a PDF. In Adobe Reader, you can turn off/on the group layer for the geometry and annotation then. (BTW, I tested this using a file geodatabase and not a shapefile. Shapefiles are good and all but a legacy data format.)