Control which symbol classes appear in a legend

wayfaringrob

Currently, a legend item includes all symbol classes from that feature, and there is no way to control this without converting to graphics. It would be great to control which symbols are shown in a legend and customize the order without having to split into multiple shapefiles/feature classes.

For example, in this map, I'd like only closed roads to show in the legend. This is not possible since they are in the same shapefile, and splitting them out would result in some issues with symbol layer drawing settings (and be cumbersome).

KoryKramer · ‎08-25-2021

This idea already exists and it sounds like if that were possible it would meet your needs.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/convert-specific-symbols-in-legend-to-graphics/idi-p/...

Though what you're proposing with this idea might preclude the need to add everything in the first place, then convert specific classes to graphics just to remove them - which would be a better workflow in my opinion. The layout team will review the idea, but it seems like the ideal workflow would be to highlight just the specific symbol classes you want in the legend, and adding the legend would only include those classes.

@wayfaringrob to clarify, you still want all features to display in the map, but only show 1 of the symbol classes in the legend correct?

Also, as an aside to your comment about reordering, you can reorder the symbol classes in the symbology pane and the order is reflected in the legend.

wayfaringrob · ‎08-25-2021

Yes - keep them on the map, but perhaps manually select which ones I'd like to show in the legend much like you can with standalone items. In my mind, it would be similar to adding/removing other items to the legend; perhaps collapsible with subcategories being the different symbol classes or even being able to integrate/mix the symbol classes with other items.

That idea you linked doesn't sound like what I'm looking for. I'd like to get this without going the graphics route. I often convert to graphics anyway, but it's much easier to get things in order in the legend settings if you can. This time, I wound up converting the legend to graphics, deleting what I didn't want, and doing lots of alignment work.

I'm aware that you can reorder classes in the symbology pane and have done that; however, this can cause some issues with symbol layer drawing settings. I'd like to rearrange in the legend only, much like you can for standalone items.

In essence, symbol classes appear in the legend like separate items, so it would make sense to me to include parallel tools to work with them as such.