topic Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored in ArcGIS StoryMaps Questions

Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

WillCorbett23 — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 18:04:54 GMT

I'm having an issue with Story Maps honoring my custom initial zoom level. This Story Map advertises properties that are under tax foreclosure by our county tax department. I have selected Custom - Town for the initial zoom level, but it reverts to automatic regardless of how may points I have created. Once a property is selected in the map tour, it then correctly shows the custom level that I have selected for each particular property. If I only have one property in the listing, then my initial view is the entire world, even though I am using a organizational base map. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Wilson County Tax Office Foreclosure Properties Map

Thanks for the help

Will

Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

AbbyE_Esri — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 20:59:04 GMT

Hello @WillCorbett23 ,

The initial zoom extent setting applies to the zoom set when clicking on the individual points. The zoom extent for the entire map is not something that can currently be set. It is instead based on the calculated set of all tour points. This is a great suggestion for an enhancement in the future, which I would recommend bringing up on the ArcGIS Ideas page.

Best,

Abby

Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

WillCorbett23 — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 16:41:26 GMT

Thanks Abby! Maybe I had only noticed this time because there is only one point in the map.

Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

Matt-Huser — Fri, 31 May 2024 19:43:21 GMT

@AbbyE_Esri we are running into a similar situation but it feels more like a bug than an enhancement idea. Is my scenario below expected?

If there is only 1 point in your map tour, the extent/zoom level, when set either in the saved web map or the map tour settings, is not honored. If I have more than one point, my custom extents are honored.

Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

DanielBurmester — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:37:58 GMT

I'm having the same problem. I will be adding more points but right now I have only one. The StoryMap is not following my instructions to zoom to county level, instead in starts out zoomed to the globe.

Re: Custom Initial Zoom Level Not Honored

OwenGeo — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:41:33 GMT

Hi @DanielBurmester -- There is currently not a way for you to set the initial extent that shows when a map tour first comes into view. The map will always show the extent of all points in the tour.

What you currently have is a special case -- when there is only one point in the tour, there's no way for the builder to determine the initial extent (the minimum bounding box around a single point is a polygon of zero area). If you add another location, you'll see the initial extent update to a more appropriate scale.

If you're interested in having a way to manually set the initial extent/zoom level, there is an idea here that you can vote for to show your support for this enhancement.