Extent indicator leader options greyed out
I would like to draw a leader from my extent indicator to the second map frame, but the option is greyed out. I couldn't find any documentation about why that might be. What do I need to change for this to work?
That option gets disabled when the extent indicator area is larger than the visible map frame area. Since the extent indicator is too large to draw you can't add a leader line. So in the picture below if I try to add an extent indicator to map frame 1 showing the extent of map frame 2, that extent indicator won't draw on the map because the area of map frame 2 is more extensive than that of map frame 1. In that case my leader option becomes disabled.
If I had an extent indicator to map frame 2 showing the extent of map frame 1 then the extent indicator draws as expected and I can add a leader.
With that in mind the first thing I suggest is checking that your extent indicator is pointing to the right map frame. If that doesn't solve the problem you might try readding it altogether, it's possible Pro got stuck in a weird state and just needs to redo the extent indicator operation to get out of it.
Cheers,
Aubri
Map series on a map frame is definitely blocking the leader settings for map frame extents elements, but just disabling it on my layout wasn't enough on its own to re-enable it. My project has multiple layouts with map series defined, and the specific layout I was working with has other map series-driven elements.
I tried copying the layout to a fresh project, but leader options remained greyed-out with map series disabled. What finally fixed it was copying JUST the map frames into a fresh layout, again with map series disabled. Once I sorted out my leaders, I copied the extents indicators back onto the original map frame in my full layout/project and the leaders persisted.
I feel this issue stems from a misguided design philosophy that's reflected in similar settings blocks for certain other scenarios. For example, where some label placement settings are disabled when using the 'Contour' position for line labels. Similarly to this issue, the settings are re-enabled when using a different position, and seem to persist when 'Contour' is re-selected.
This probably isn't the place to offer feedback on the broader design issue, but the connection between these issues seems obvious. Encountering roadblocks like this (or the inability to directly unassign projection from datasets) gives an impression of an, at best patronizing, or at worst hostile, design philosophy in Pro that didn't seem to be present in ArcMap.
If any Esri staff could weigh in on this, or direct me to a better forum to discuss or offer feedback, it would be appreciated.
Hi @JosephChampagne ,
Thanks for the post!
I can confirm your theory that this issue is map series related. The key is applying a leader line to an Extent Indicator that belongs to the same map frame that is driving the map series. Leader lines work fine when used with other map frames that are not driving the map series.
In my example below the Leader controls in the Element pane are disabled, however, you can still add a leader line from the Extent Indicator element context menu off the Contents pane (circled in green on the left side of the screenshot below).
However, you will still be unable to format the leader while the map frame with the Extent Indicator defines a map series. You will need to set Map Series to None (it is not enough to disable the map series), set the line format, and then recreate the map series.
In my opinion the disabled state for the Leader in the Extent Indicator Element pane is a bug. Unfortunately, our test scenarios focused on Extent Indicators on other map fames and not the one driving the map series. Thanks again for helping us identify a gap in our testing.
Tom
