Define specific extent in map board panel

[Carabiner-Carto]

Hello fellow Adobe and GIS users!

I am wondering if there is a way to define a specific unit extent within the Map Board in ArcGIS Map for Creative Cloud extension. 

For example, say I wanted to draw a 1 sq. mi extent of a neighborhood in the Map Board to define my area of interest. I know there are some settings in the Map Board Options window, but this defines the Map Board in inches and sets the scale of resolution for data i later wish to sync in the Compilation window. 

How might I go about creating this specific extent dimension?

Thank you. 

[SarahBell]

Hi Carabiner-Carto. This is a wonderful question! Translating an area of the spherical earth into the extent of a rectangular map is a little tricky, especially when considering varying map projections that will inevitably change shapes. In Maps for Adobe the mapboard always defines the size of the map output which is always rectangular. Generally, this process doesn't consider how far in you have the basemap zoomed either. Two approaches that you might consider is to either 1) create a dataset containing a polygon(s) of the area you want to map, then add that layer to your map and draw your mapboard around the polygon(s), or 2) If you are using a Plus or ArcGIS account, you can define your mapboard based upon coordinates in the form of decimal degrees. You can read about corner coordinates here.