ArcGIS Story Map Requests and Issues

[Amanda__Huber]

Hey Story Maps Team, 

As always, you all are doing such a great job building out this brand new template. While working with the new template after the UC release I found some things that could be fixed and could make the new template even more powerful. In addition I recently came across this GeoNet post  by Stephanie Smith‌ which covers many of the requests that I also was going to add. I thought I would add these requests here as well. 

I would love to see the following: 

1. Increase the amount of user customization for font type, size, justification, spacing, colors, etc. in every block option and not just in the major theme settings.
2. Ability for users to change dimensions of embedded content, if they choose, instead of being locked only to the app presets (maybe a css override option).
3. Allow for images to "gallery" next to each other like in the cascade layout instead of only allowing stacking. 
4. Allow for adding content to sidecar like images and videos via a url instead of only uploading from a computer.
5. Add the ability to embed a webpage into the sidecar.
6. Ability to add small text for credits or notes in the side car. Right now there is not a clean way to give photo, video, or map credit.
7. Increase map setting options beyond only allowing or not allowing a legend. It would be nice to be able to choose legend placement, if you wanted a home button or other basic map options. It would also be nice to have a pop-up option that does not convert the pop-up to a table layout.
8. Add the option to have cards that are right image/left text card instead of only a left image option.
9. Add a credits section or WYSIWYG html block to customize your own.

Here are some additional functionality requests/ things I've noticed while working with the new Story Map template: 

Requests: (in addition to the above)

• Add in a stock photo resource in the interface (like Cascade's Unsplash) (Pixabay is also one of my favorite resources which would be awesome to have)
• The ability to move around content sections without having to re-write or delete content. 
• Ability to control paragraph spacing (less space between text lines).
• Option to center text block in story. 
  
  

Issues: 

• The Undo CTRL-Z functionality doesn’t always work.
• When using Bullet points, sometimes the formatting is wonky and glitches/ doesn't behave as most text editors do. In addition I would like to see the ability to mix bullet points and numbers or even sub bullets for a more structured option (visual organization in bullet form with hierarchy). 
• When Copy and pasting, sometimes it doesn't work. 
  
  Thanks for all your hard work!
  Best, 
  Amanda 

[OwenGeo]

Thanks for these great and thoughtful lists, Amanda! We're working on adding/addressing many of these items already, and we'll make sure to add your other suggestions to our feedback list.

[Amanda__Huber]

Sounds great, thanks so much Owen!

[LeifJohnson3]

Thanks Amanda for the post and Owen and the rest of the story maps team for getting on it so quickly.  The new version of story maps just seems to be lacking in the customization arena, which is what I loved about the original so much.  For that reason, I'm waiting for the new version to get up to speed a bit before I switch over to it.  I agree with all of the suggestions being proposed and would just like to point out the ones that would be most useful to me:

• The ability to duplicate sidecar slides.  I've seen this in other posts, but just wanted to reiterate it.  It was a very helpful feature for me to use instead of a time slider which can be a little awkward to use in a story map at times.  Being able to duplicate a slide and then toggle layers on and off really helps to make that a smoother process and still show the before and after views.
• The ability to see an overview of the content you have added so far and be able to rearrange the content like Amanda proposed would be really helpful.  If there was a way to see an even more zoomed out overview of the content, kind of like if you were to zoom out to 50 or 60% in a word doc and be able to see multiple pages at a time that might be helpful.  I like being able to do this because it gives me a better idea of the overall flow of whatever I'm working on.
• Adding different options for how a sidecar moves over content would be nice too.
• I especially liked the ability to align text and titles in the original as well.  

I'm sure you guys have your hand's full with all of this right now, but the new addition looks great, you guys should be really proud, and I'm excited to see where you take it.

[Amanda__Huber]

As I continue to work with my current story map I have a few more requests/issues that I thought I would add: 

Request: 

• Float image with right alignment (not just left always).
• Have the ability to add a small photo below the float image text.
• Drop caps in paragraphs.
• The ability to have embedded content span the page (similar to the current photo settings) 
• The ability to edit an Embed URL versus fully delete it. 

Issues: 

• When uploading a portrait oriented photo the application automatically rotates it to landscape regardless of default orientation. 
• When selecting text, the selection always seems a bit finicky and you need to stop your mouse directly over the last letter otherwise it de-selects the text. 
  
  As always, thanks so much for all you do!

[OwenGeo]

The ability to have embedded content span the page (similar to the current photo settings) 

You can do this one already by hovering over the embed and choosing a size from the toolbar. 🙂

Have the ability to add a small photo below the float image text.

Can you provide a little more information about this one? What would you use this for? Can you share a quick sketch of what this would look like or where the small photo would go?

When uploading a portrait oriented photo the application automatically rotates it to landscape regardless of default orientation. 

Can you share the image you are using? I'm not able to see this using the portrait images I'm testing.

[Amanda__Huber]

Hi Owen, 

Thanks for the speedy reply! 

The ability to have embedded content span the page (similar to the current photo settings) 

You can do this one already by hovering over the embed and choosing a size from the toolbar. 🙂

Am I missing something? I only see two options for embedding as a card or as an interactive embed (see image below). I was hoping for an menu similar to images where there are options for float, small, 1200px, and 2000px. 

Have the ability to add a small photo below the float image text.

Can you provide a little more information about this one? What would you use this for? Can you share a quick sketch of what this would look like or where the small photo would go?

Absolutely, here's what I was thinking  

When uploading a portrait oriented photo the application automatically rotates it to landscape regardless of default orientation. 

Can you share the image you are using? I'm not able to see this using the portrait images I'm testing.

Here's a link to the raw image: https://trpd.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/d13ecad290d34503a3d935e42cf4b2aa/data 

I've noticed this behavior with most portrait images, not just this one. Here's what it looks like in the story map on my end vs what it should look like: 

Thanks again!

-Amanda

[OwenGeo]

Thanks Amanda -- we're looking into this.

[Amanda__Huber]

I figure I'll just keep contributing to this thread. 

I recently noticed when uploading a video 49.7 MB video file I receive the error "Images must be smaller than 20 MB" but when uploading a 36.2 MB video file I receive no errors (still larger than the 20MB error message) and the video is added successfully. This is a head scratcher. 

A few suggestions would be: 

• Improve the error message to the correct size limit and change the error message from 'image' to 'video'
• Increase the file upload size for videos (since most videos can be fairly large) or allow hot-linking from a third-party video hosting website. 

Thanks!

[AravindStoryMaps]

 Hi Amanda,

Thank you for the feedback! We've corrected the message to indicate that they are "videos" and the minimum file size for videos in .mp4 format are 50MB. 

Thanks,

Aravind