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Improve ArcGIS Pro Project Template Discoverability for Users

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07-15-2019 08:14 PM
Status: Under Consideration
Labels (1)
AndrewDouglas-Clifford1
Occasional Contributor

One thing that ArcMap still does well is the ability to quickly find templates installed on the machine at startup. I would love for ArcGIS Pro to be able to show project templates at startup in the same manner, so that people in our organization can quickly use them.

 

This could be done by looking in a common directory we could place company templates in with the local installation as ArcMap does. I see that there's some default templates in C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ProjectTemplates, but placing our organizational template there doesn't make it visible on the starting screen - it would be great if any templates placed here would clearly come up to the user at startup.

 

Alternatively, using Portal/ArcGIS Online hosted templates, there could be a 'Featured Templates' section visible at Pro startup to everybody that could contain organizational project templates for anyone in the organization to use. Currently, this is only possible if the template is shared through a group to the specific user, or by searching manually, which isn't a great user experience if you're trying to get the template discoverable to all of your organization.

 

I'm aware that once a template is used, it will come up in the future under 'Recent Templates', which is great - however it doesn't solve the problem of the initial discovery.

4 Comments
KjetilSverdrup-Thygeson

Agreed. 
In Pro 2.2, our company's default project template was listed under "Select a project template" along with the standard templates: "Blank", "Global_Scene", "Local_Scene" and "Map". 
This was achieved by putting the aptx under C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ProjectTemplates.
In 2.3 and 2.4, our project template is no longer visible, and the user has to know the location of the project template and navigate to it. This causes unnecessary confusion among our users.

NaicongLi
Status changed to: Under Consideration
 
PaulHaakma

I like the idea of somehow having a designated group in ArcGIS Online/Enterprise that featured templates for the organization could be shared to, that would then display on the ArcGIS Pro start up screen if the user is signed in.

It would be great if users could open up Pro and have the recommended organizations templates right there for them to choose from without having to click buttons and browse dialog boxes.

JPrescott

I agree with this suggestion.  In 2021 Esri stated that work on bringing this functionality back was in progress.  In 2024 we still cannot add custom project templates to the default list of templates on the start screen.  When users must search for a custom template, the use of our organization's templates drops significantly.  True, once users located the template and use it once, it appears in the "recently used templates" section, and can be pinned, but this is not an effective method of enforcing standards across a large organization.