Hello, I am a relatively new ArcGIS user and I have a question about automating a tedious join/symbology classification/export operation. I have a very simple shapefile to which I join a bunch of fields. I then need to have these new fields symbolized with a specific color ramp using a five quantile classification and then exported to a JPG at a certain resolution with a specific filename.
First of all, is this even possible? If so, is it possible to sort of "preload" the software manually with the layers and page layout I want and then have it loop in such a way that it merely changes the symbology field value and exports, over and over? There is a legend but since the labels will remain the same (quantile 1, quantile 2, etc) I can just leave that as a hardcoded graphic.
I'm envisioning something like this: I add my two layers (one is a fill-free layer of US states to serve as an outline for the other layer) and then join one big file to the layer that needs symbology. This program I don't know how to write would then loop through and change the symbology field value to the next column I've added, and changes the classification back to a 5-class quantile (it always reverts to Jenks for some reason). Then since the legend is hardcoded it just needs to save this new map of field Beta1 as a jpg and then switch to Beta2, Beta3, etc.
Does this make sense? Is it possible? Is it really complicated? Thanks for your help!