Creating images of ArcGIS Online maps

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07-08-2020 10:40 AM
Kathleen_BSchaefer
New Contributor

Hi there,

I am an ArcGIS beginner and have been creating maps on ArcGIS Online. However, I am unsure of the best way to insert these maps into a Word document as an image. Any guidance on how to do this would be wonderful! Thank you.

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2 Replies
Egge-Jan_Pollé
MVP Regular Contributor

Hi Kathleen B Schaefer,

1. The quickest and easiest way would be to create the image from the ArcGIS Online map viewer:

  • In the ArcGIS Online map viewer, click the Print drop-down menu. There are two options available, which is printing only the Map or the Map with Legend.

  • A printer-friendly web page of the map is displayed.
  • You will soon discover that only the 'map' part is an image, which can be copied and pasted right away to your Word document. (The map viewer uses MAP_ONLY and PNG32 as the output formats.)
  • If you want to copy the whole layout (i.e. including the title and the legend) you will have to take a screen capture to paste to your Word document.

2. A slightly more advanced way would be to build a Web Mapping Application (using the ArcGIS Web AppBuilder) and add a print widget to this app.

  • The options in this print widget will allow you to set the scale, define the scale bar units, set a title, an author and copyright text, etc.
  • With this print widget you can print the whole layout to an image (e.g. a PNG file) directly.

Hope this helps 🙂

BR,

Egge-Jan

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BernSzukalski
Esri Frequent Contributor

Were it me, I'd just do a screen capture using any one of a number of options (I use Snagit a lot) and then just copy and paste into your Word document. 

The things that will make a big difference are the size. If it's downsized in Word, you'll likely notice a degradation of image quality. So capture at a size that is closest to actual when added to your Word doc.

Better yet, use one of the map-centric configurable apps to create a live interactive alternative, and add a link to that in your Word doc, along with whatever graphic you want to include. Best of all worlds...

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