Legend Background not filling entire area

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02-12-2018 11:17 AM
DanielMatranga1
New Contributor III

In the newest version of ArcGIS Pro, when I insert a legend, then choose Background > Solid Fill, and select a color > Apply, the fill does not go to the boundary of the legend rectangle.

Is this the intended functionality for adding a background to a legend?

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AubriKinghorn
Esri Regular Contributor

You are correct, aligning with an offset background is currently a challenge. My team is looking into improving that experience in future releases of Pro. Thank you for alerting us to this problem!

However, if you choose to draw a rectangle behind your legend and group the two elements together, you will not have to redraw your rectangle every time you add or remove a layer. Items in a group can be resized independently, without affecting the other group elements. If the Group is selected in the Table of Contents and then you manually resize, all elements in the group will change. If an element in the group is selected, though, and you manually resize, only that element will change. So when you add or remove a layer the legend will resize automatically, but the rectangle will not. 

Cheers,
Aubri

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AubriKinghorn
Esri Regular Contributor

Hello!

This is the intended functionality for adding a background to a legend. Legends are dynamic, growing and shrinking as new layers are added to the map. The background is designed to grow and shrink with the legend, so that it works well with all legend sizes as well as the different legend fitting strategies and legends in map series. There are easy ways to get the effect you are looking for though!

If you need the box surrounding your legend to be an exact size, you can draw a rectangle and place it behind your legend, you could then group the two elements together (Select the legend and rectangle in the Table of Contents, right click -> Group) so you can resize or re-position them both at the same time. This will give you control over the exact size and shape.

If you just want the background to extend beyond the legend items a little, creating a margin, you can use the X-Gap and Y-Gap controls, located just under the Background Symbol. Increasing these gaps creates a set margin around your legend. This allows your background to still grow and shrink as you add or remove legend items.

Cheers,

Aubri Kinghorn

Cheers,
Aubri
DanielMatranga1
New Contributor III

What if I want to align the legend with other elements in a given layout? Wouldn't it align with other items based on the bounds of the Legend, and not necessarily the bounding box that is formed by the Background, which has been offset? Currently, I just have to "eyeball" it, but this doesn't seem ideal for making professional maps.

I will try drawing the additional rectangle behind the Legend and grouping them like you mention. However, as soon as I add an additional layer to the Legend, the Legend is going to resize, and I'm going to have to redo the rectangle all over again. (I have 24 maps to export from this project, and this doesn't seem like the ideal approach but I will go ahead with it for now.)

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ZacharyUhlmann1
Occasional Contributor III

Hi @DanielMatranga1  and @AubriKinghorn - any solution to this yet?  I'm in the same boat, and to my recollection this was not an issue in Arc Desktop.  My bread and butter are map series and my legend will span between 1-3 columns depending on content within each sheet.  The particularly issue is that the background (grey in images shared) resize vertically to fit what's INSIDE the legend extents.  This seems like a change in functionality that is undesirable on ESRI's side in the Pro conversion, not really a bug.  If this has not been resolved, be a good idea to submit an Idea because it makes for ugly map series.  Suppose I could draw the box as @AubriKinghorn  suggests, not ideal though.

 

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AubriKinghorn
Esri Regular Contributor

You are correct, aligning with an offset background is currently a challenge. My team is looking into improving that experience in future releases of Pro. Thank you for alerting us to this problem!

However, if you choose to draw a rectangle behind your legend and group the two elements together, you will not have to redraw your rectangle every time you add or remove a layer. Items in a group can be resized independently, without affecting the other group elements. If the Group is selected in the Table of Contents and then you manually resize, all elements in the group will change. If an element in the group is selected, though, and you manually resize, only that element will change. So when you add or remove a layer the legend will resize automatically, but the rectangle will not. 

Cheers,
Aubri