Exclude boundary labels from clipping in map series

[wayfaringrob]

Pro 3.1 enabled the option to exclude labels from clipping in map series but this does not work for boundary labeling of the index feature, perhaps the most useful placement technique for clipped maps. It results in an extra label for the feature clipped out and all sorts of issues when the feature borders multiple other features. This idea is to implement clipping for the boundary labeling style that labels the index feature and those immediately surrounding it.

[JesseWickizer]

You can exclude specific layers from clipping to the map series shape in the Map Properties window. 

Select the Clip Layers tab and use the Exclude layers from clipping menu to choose which layer(s) you wish to exclude from clipping from the map series index feature.

In this example the State polygons layer that is labeled with boundary labeling is excluded from clipping so the Maplex label engine is aware of the neighboring polygon features and can place the boundary label pair. 

[wayfaringrob]

@JesseWickizer  I see. I gave it a try on a copy of my counties with no symbology and I think that solves about half my problem; the thing is I don't really want everything labeled outside, just the boundaries of the index feature. That method labels everything still:

[wayfaringrob]

I'm looking for a way to achieve something like this:

[JesseWickizer]

An idea in this situation is to buffer the counties layer you're using (No Dissolve), and use that buffered layer as the Map Series Index layer.

Crop the map series to the index feature, and use a Page Query on layers like the focus county that shouldn't stick out beyond the county boundary. With this setup, the boundary polygon labels on the counties and states place as expected, and by extending the cropped area the county boundaries and other features stick out a little to give some surrounding context to each map page. You may have to intersect or spatial join some of your data if you want it cropped and need that index feature name added to the data for a page query. 

You won't need to use Never remove (place overlapping) to force placement of boundary labels which can also force undesirable labels to be placed.  

Finally, a tip about creating the buffered index feature layer: If the index features (counties in this case) have a wide variety of sizes, you could have more consistent visual buffer distance if you pre-populate a buffer_distance field using a function of each index feature's area. Then use that pre-calculated buffer_distance field in the Buffer tool to specify the buffer distance for each feature.