topic Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap in Cartography and Maps Questions

Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

MaeganSalinas — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 16:23:00 GMT

I am finishing up a map and every time I add a north arrow or scale bar I am getting green horizontal and/or diagonal lines that carry through until the edge of the printing view. Very strange. This has never happened to me before. Anyone know what's the deal?

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

TiffanySelvidge1 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:43:34 GMT

This has happened to me. In my case the map would look fine when I closed it but then when I reopened it or modified the layout, the green lines would appear. Always two of them.

I have managed to create a (4th) version of my map that the green lines have yet to appear in. I took everything off the page layout (ie. scale bar, compass, text, border). Then, using the select tool, I drew a selection area over the entire map. When I did that, I discovered two little-bitty blank boxes at the bottom right of my page. I deleted those two boxes and re-inserted everything from scratch. I don't know for certain that the boxes were causing the problem but the lines have not re-appeared so perhaps it is worth a try for you.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

JayantaPoddar — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:51:48 GMT

Don't know why it comes, but you can try the following.

In Layout view, Use Select Elements tool and drag a rectangle over the green lines. DELETE.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

TiffanySelvidge1 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:57:14 GMT

I don't know about what happens in Maegan's case, but for me, I can't ever select the green lines. I have tried to Identify the lines but the few times I get a result, the result does not make any sense.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

JayantaPoddar — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 18:06:09 GMT

While viewing, you won't see it as selected with Select Elements tool. But if u drag a rectangle over it with select elements tool and delete it, it will get deleted.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

TiffanySelvidge1 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 18:14:13 GMT

So drag a (Select Elements) rectangle over the area, delete the rectangle and the green lines (which were selected behind the scenes) will also be deleted? I will have to give this a try the next time it happens. Thanks.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

DavidBarnes — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 21:15:25 GMT

My guess would be something has gotten corrupted in the Layout or the mxd.

If you drag to select with the Select Elements tool and that doesn't help you might also try using the Select All Elements command from the Edit menu in the main toolbar to see if that selects anything.

Another thing to try is to drag a selection rectangle that covers the entire page, copy everything selected and paste into a new empty layout in another instance of ArcMap.

If there are still problems you might want to contact tech support so an analyst can work through the issue with you and see if there is a solution for your case or a bug that needs to be addressed.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

DavidArmlovich — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 19:41:26 GMT

This worked great for me. Thanks. I did the drag thing across the lines outside of the layout, hit the delete key and problems solved.

Re: Weird lines appearing on my layout view in ArcMap

RhondaDonley — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:32:36 GMT

replying to this old post because I ran into similar issue with a layout in ArcGIS Pro today - a diagonal white line/blank area across my layout. After reading the suggestions about about dragging select tool across the layout, I moved my map frame off the page and tried selecting the now empty page. This revealed that one of the text elements in my layout had a leader-line turned on (don't know how or why). I dragged the leader point back to the text element, then right clicked on the element in the contents and turned off the leader. This fixed the issue.