Latest Contributions by AravindStoryMaps

Mark Harrower‌ writes... "Where stories happen matters. We take the “maps” part of “StoryMaps” very seriously. Geography isn’t merely a passive stage upon which things happen. It shapes our stories. It often explains those stories. Place matters and without it your readers may be missing the whole story. So, even if you’ve never had any cartographic or GIS training, we want you to be able to include maps in your stories—that’s why we created express maps within the ArcGIS StoryMaps builder. " Read more at: What is an express map and why should you use one?  ... View more

Owen Evans‌ writes... It’s time for another update to ArcGIS StoryMaps! Here’s a rundown of new features added this week: Guided tour Map actions Format text with color Fit and fill options for video Narrative panel style options in slideshow Conclude your story with a credits section Publish a story privately or share it to a group …and much more! Read more at: What’s new in ArcGIS StoryMaps (January 2020)  ... View more

Toggle your map legend on or off Some maps display a variety of data, so your readers will need a legend to make sense of what’s what. Other maps, meanwhile, are nice and straightforward, and it can be nice to hide the map legend in these instances to reduce visual clutter. Turning a legend on our off is the same whether you’re configuring a web map, 3D scene, or an express map. Start by opening the map designer and navigating to the Settings tab of the side panel. There, you’ll see a switch to show or hide the legend; simply toggle it on or off depending on your map needs. Your map will update instantly to reflect this change. ... View more

Add your logo to the header of your story Branding can be an important element of a polished story map, and nothing more clearly shows off your brand than a logo. If you want, you can have your logo appear in the header of your story, right next to the title, so it’s always visible as readers scroll through your narrative. To do this, enter the builder for your story and click Design in the header. At the bottom of the design panel you’ll find the option to upload a logo; click the + and select your desired image. Once it’s uploaded, you’ll see it appear in the top corner of your story. You’ll also see additional fields appear at the bottom of the design panel—use these to add alternative text for your logo and to link it to a website of your choosing. ... View more

Link to a specific item in a collection Collections are useful for bundling together related stories and other ArcGIS apps. You can share links with your audience that send them to the collection overview (where they’ll see a gallery of cards for each item available to them) or to the presentation view (where they’ll see items one-by-one as full-page interactives). The general presentation view link will always open to the first item in the collection. If, however, you’d like to point readers to a specific item, you can also generate a link that will open the presentation view on that app or story. There are two ways you can generate this link. The first is by navigating to the collection overview, clicking on the card of the item to which you want to direct your readers, and simply copying the URL from your browser once the presentation view loads. You’ll notice that this link includes /present, indicating that you’re pointing to the presentation view of a collection. It also includes ?item=n, where n is the number of the item in that collection. So, if you want a bit of a shortcut for linking to a specific collection item—let’s say the fourth item, for example—simply grab the collection link and add /present?item=4 to the end of the URL (or whatever number applies to your desired item). If you’re not sure of the item’s number in the collection, simply open the presentation view, navigate to your item of choice, and you’ll see the specific item number in the header alongside the total number of items in the collection. ... View more

Add alternative text to media Making your content accessible is an important part of authoring inclusive stories. That’s why we’ve designed StoryMaps to meet common accessibility standards. We’ve also included features to help authors cater to individuals using assistive technology like screen readers. Alternative text is one of these features—you should use it to describe any functional media in your story so that those with visual impairments can still follow along. Adding alternative text to any piece of media is simple. Just open the Properties panel for that piece of content (you may need to hover over it to reveal the media toolbar) and the field to enter your description is front and center. Click Save when you’re done and you’re good to go. ... View more

Reorder numbered points in an express map Say you have an express map with five numbered points representing places you visited on your latest vacation. You added the points for each place in the order in which you visited them, but now you’ve changed your mind and want the numbers to serve as a ranking for enjoyment at each destination. Don’t panic, there’s no need to delete your points and start over. In the Map layers tab of the map designer’s side panel you’ll see your points listed with point one at the top and point five at the bottom. To reorder your list, click and drag the point name for each place, dropping them into your preferred sequence. The numbers for each point on your map will update as you make changes in the side panel, and all that pop-up information you already added for each point is preserved just as you had it. ... View more

Change an express map's basemap The style of express maps is automatically synced with your story’s theme, so you can always be confident that they’ll harmonize with the rest of your content. But did you know you can choose from a few different basemaps when creating one of these simple maps? Each theme comes with two vector basemaps that fit your theme’s aesthetic, plus the satellite imagery basemap for instances where your readers need a literal bird’s eye view. To change your map’s basemap, open the map designer and navigate to the Settings tab on the side panel. There you’ll find your three basemap options—just pick whichever one best suits your needs and click Place map to save your changes. ... View more

Hide a story’s published date While the StoryMaps builder will automatically update the date in your story’s cover every time you publish, you have the ability to hide this information if you’d prefer. This can be useful if you’ve made an evergreen resource that will stay relevant no matter how many weeks, months, or years have passed since you created it. To remove the published date from your cover, open the story builder and expand the More actions menu in the story header. From there, select Story settings and simply check the box to hide the date on the cover. Click Save and poof, the date will vanish, but you can add it back any time. ... View more

Add media to a minimal cover The minimal cover is a great option for how-to articles, thought pieces, or press-release-style updates. For these kinds of stories, the subject is what will hook your readers most, so a big, dramatic cover image can be overkill. But, if you want to keep the emphasis on your title and still add a little visual flair, you do have that option. 1. In your story, open the design panel, select Minimal from the list of cover options, and close the design panel. 2. Above your title, in the upper right corner of your story, you’ll see + Add cover media. 3. Click it to upload a photo or video. 4. Your media will display in a panoramic aspect ratio; for images, you can open the Properties menu and move the focal point to the area of the image you want to be visible across screen sizes. ... View more

Owen Evans‌ writes...  "Back in July when we launched the new ArcGIS StoryMaps we also announced an initial transition timeline for our classic storytelling templates (Story Map Journal, Cascade, Tour, etc.). Since then, we’ve been monitoring the usage of both the new and classic story builders and listening to the feedback we’ve received from our community of storytellers. Now that we’re a few months into this new project, we wanted to revisit this timeline." Read more at Updated classic story map transition timeline   ... View more

Hannah Wilber‌ writes... "In my last post, I talked a bit about immersive blocks in ArcGIS StoryMaps, and how they’re powerful tools for getting readers engrossed in the story you’re telling. Well there’s another tool in your toolkit—or, more accurately, block on the block palette—that can help you create the kind of delightful and informative experiences your audience craves. I’m talking about the embed block. With it, you can add all kinds of things to story maps: Tweets, SoundCloud tracks, Spotify playlists, interactive charts, ArcGIS apps…" Read more at Enrich your story maps with embedded web content  ... View more