Thanks for the response ... I reviewed both links and I'm going to give the widget a shot tomorrow, thanks for the link. On the python extent and scale with the webmap, I sorted this after I reviewed the other link and the instructions carefully I made a typo on the Web_Map_as_JSON Display Name - again thanks....
On a similar path - The process is great fast and cracking quality, but how can I get Rasters into the process?.. For testing I put in a raster into the template, and the serivice. I create the PDF and the raster is created , but is renamed IMAGE and is placed at the bottom of the layer list -same is true for multiple images. I tried getting the 'rasters = arcpy.ListRasters(mxd)' list and trying not to remove these - so many different ways but never managed to get a correct result - as in and image with the corrrect name and location in the TOC in the PDF.
any hints please - i'd like to crack this soon
cheers
Paulg