How to Creating a map layout in ArcGIS

             A layout is a collection of map elements laid out and organized on a page. Common map elements include one or more data frames each containing an ordered set of map layer, a scalebar, north arrow. map title, descriptive text, and a legend. Layout view is where you add map surrounds, frames, graticules, and other finishing touches to a map. What you see on the layout is what you get if you print or export the map to the same page size.

creating a Map Layout

 Below are the general steps for laying out a map in ArcMap:- 

 1. Create, edit, and symbolize your data symbolize your data as appropriate.

 2. In layout view, click the insert menu to add elements onto your layout. If you have  more than one data frame in your map, the elements you insert will relate to the active data frame. For example when you add a scale bar to the map, it will reflect the scale of the active data frame and update if you change the scale of that data frame. Once you've added an element to your map, you can right click it and click properties to set additional options.

 3. Add other text or graphics, such as metadata notes, borders, and frames, using the Draw toolbar. You can use guides, grids, and rulers to help you precisely position elements on your page. The commands on the graphics toolbar or the drawing menu of the draw toolbar can help align, group and order the elements on the page. In addition, you can use the data frame properties dialog box to create other effect, such as inset maps, clip the shapes of data frames.

 4. Edit and finish your map elements to complete your map. As a last step, you may need to convert some of your map elements to graphics so you can have complete control over their appearance and make manual edits to the elements. However, as a graphic, the element loses its connection to the data frame. For example, if you convert a a legend to a graphic then later add a layer to your map, the legend as a graphic will not reflect this update.

 5. Print and publish your map. you can also save your layout, including the data in the map, as a template, and use it as a starting point for further mapping and analysis. Map templates make it easy to produce maps that conform to a standard and they save time by letting you do the layout work for all the maps in the series at once.

Data Frames

perhaps the most important part of a map is the geographic data. Geographic data is presented in the layout in a data frame. Simple maps usually have a single data frame, but some maps have multiple data frames.

The shape and orientation of the geographic feature you're depicting may influence the size and shape of the data frame on the map as well as the orientation of the map on page.

Aesthetic criteria, limitations of the media that you use to reproduce the map and the number and size of other elements that you add to the will affect your choice of page size and orientation. 

Having more than one data frame in a map

You can add as many data frames to your map as you need and arrange them in the page layout. When you have more than one data frame in a map, you need to be aware of which data frame is active. Many of the ArcMap tools and commands work on the active data frame.

you can tell which data frame is active by confirming that its name is shown in bold in the table of contents. In addition, when a map contains more than one data frame, the active data frame is shown with a light dotted line around its border. The diagram below shown the various states of a data frame in layout view. 

   

       

Top Left - Inactive data frame

Top Right - Active data frame

Bottom Right - Focused data frame.

Bottom Left - Active data frame selected with the select elements tool. You can move around on the layout, resize it delete it and so on.

        If you have many data frames in a layout, you may find that map composition tasks are slowed down by having to draw each data frame as it moves. you can set a data frame to use draft mode drawing, which means it only draws the border and the data frame's name in the middle of its extent in layout view. There is also a toggle draft mode button on the Layout toolbar that will toggle whether all data frame are shown in draft mode. 

How to add data frames 

Add a new data frame to a map;

 1. Click the insert menu and click Data Frame.

     You can add any data to the new data frame.

Making a data frame active;

1. Click the select elements tool.

2. Click the data frame in layout view.

Copying a data frame;

1. Click the data frame in layout view to select it.

2. Click the edit menu and click copy.

3. Click the edit menu and click paste. 

4. Click the copy, Located on top of the original data frame, and drag it to a new place on the page.

Resizing a data frame;

1. Click the data frame to select it.

2. Click a selection handle and drag it to change the size of the data frame.

Printing and exporting from ArcMap 

There are numerous options for map printing and exporting in ArcGIS. A map can be printed directly to a printer or it can be exported to a graphics file such as PDF and JPEG. You can export from data view or layout view in ArcMap. From layout view, the page layout will be output, from data view, the visible extent of the data frame will be output.

The ArcMap printing functionality includes the windows printer engine for typical map prints, as well as the ArcPress printer engine for printing large or complex maps to a large format printer.

The ArcMap map export functionality allows you to export a map to any of TEN formats. These include five raster formats: BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF and five vector formats: EMF, PDF, EPS, SVG and Adode illustrator.

How to print a map

Previewing a map;

1. Click the file menu and click print preview.

2. Examine the preview.

3. Click print if you want to continue and print, otherwise, click close.

Choosing a printer engine;

1. Click the menu and click print.

2. Click the printer engine drop-down arrow and choose a printer engine.

3. Click Ok.

Printing a map;

1. Click the file menu and click print.

2. Verify the printer engine is set properly. If it is not, change it, then click properties and verify the settings for the printer driver.

3. Verify the output image quality is set properly.

4. If the map page size is larger than the printer paper size, then the Tile map to printer paper option will be enabled and selected. If you do not want to tile your      print, click Scale Map to fit Printer Paper. To proceed regardless of possible clipping, click tile map to printer paper and choose to print tiles 1 to 1.

5. Click the Number of Copies arrows to increase or decrease the number of printed maps. Optionally, check print to file. You will be prompted for a file name after you click Ok.

6. Click Ok.

How to Creating a map layout in ArcGIS