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Label Class or Symbology Callouts for Park Trail Attribute Icons in Layout?

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02-02-2026 04:13 PM
Teresa_Blader
Frequent Contributor

I'm working on some maps for our parks and trails in our county, and these trails also have icons for different attributes, like ADA and pets allowed (yes/no fields)... like style dictionary, but displays in the legend.

Rules: dynamic in the map AND visible in the legend dynamically. No graphics layer.

I see two options: 
1. create label classes > SQL expressions > callout > point symbol > position settings 
2. use symbology layer > shape marker > marker placement

Issues:
1.  doesn't display in legend, but has better placement with weights/priorities/other classes, have to set field to something like object ID and then make transparent text
2. displays in legend but the marker positions overlaps label classes (like trail name) and difficult to set marker position to just show 1 icon for the whole line (which is made of many parts)

I really need the "best of both worlds"... which should be style dictionary, but that doesn't show up in the legend and I really can't figure it out.

Anyone know of any good tips? I'd love to hear/see examples from other trail maps! What key settings might make this happen?

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Teresa Blader
Olmsted County GIS
GIS Analyst - GIS Solutions
1 Reply
AdrianWelsh
MVP Honored Contributor

Teresa, this is a great looking map and a fun, yet annoying, project to tackle. I wish there was an 'easy' button for these kind of things because what you're asking is not out of the ordinary.

My approach would be a hybrid combination. Using labels as the symbols works great on a map but like you pointed out. they don't show up in the legend. My suggestion is to do the label approach and then have a 'dummy' layer in your contents that will be the item that gets represented in the legend. This layer will likely be turned off but still captured in the legend.

Of course, you will have to make sure that you uncheck the box for Layer visibility in the legend properties, so that it will still show layers that are turned off.

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