The Custom Legend wizard is a new ArcView tool for designing state-of-the-art
map legends. You only need to have a layout and one or more views in your project
to use this tool. Unlike traditional ArcView you do not need to have a viewframe in
your layout to add a legend. You only need to click a point at the location where you
want the lower left corner of the legend to be located and your legend will be created
from the view you choose.
To begin using the Legend Tool, open a layout in a project in which you have at least
one view. A new "Custom Legend Tool" button should appear at the right end of the
lower tool bar. Click on this button and then click the approximate point in your layout
where you would like the lower left corner of your legend. The following graphic should
appear.
Click the Next button to advance to Step 1
This second panel is where you choose the view that will be used to create a legend.
Once you have chosen a view, its themes will be shown in the box on the left. You can
select one or more of these themes and click the add button ">>", which will move those
themes into the listbox on the right. These are the themes that will be shown in the legend.
Once you have a theme in the box on the right, the Preview button will become enabled.
At any point from now on, you can click the Preview button to see what this legend will
look like based on the properties you have set so far. Because there are so many properties
to set in the Custom Legend wizard, you will find it convenient to preview your legend.
Once you click Preview, the name of that button will change to Finish, and the name of
the Next button will change to Remove. If you're not happy with what you see then click
the Remove button, but if you're happy with what you see, then click the Finish button.
Last, you choose the number of columns that your legend will be shown with. The first
option is always One per theme. The other choices are numbers up to the maximum possible
based on the themes you have chosen. The Custom Legend wizard will attempt to use
the number of columns you choose, but there are certain combinations of symbols and labels
that defy looking good at a particular number of columns. You can either try a different
number of columns, or ungroup the legend and move some of the graphical elements until
you are completely satisfied with their position and appearance.
When you add a theme to be included in your legend, it doesn't matter whether its legend
is hidden in its view's table of contents or if that theme is currently visible in the view.
This tool will show that theme's symbols.
Step 2: Title Settings
You can enter whatever text you want to use as the title for your legend. If you don't want
a title, just erase the default text, which is the name of your view. If you want a title, you
can set the font, size, and style, and the location of that title relative to the rest of the legend.
The font that you choose here will be used for the rest of the labels in your legend,
however, the size and style will only be applied to your title. If you want to change the
size or style, you can ungroup the resulting legend and edit the properties of the individual
labels using the Symbol Window.
Step 3: Border Settings
Here, you choose the line style you want to use as a border for your legend. You can
choose the width, color, and background color (everything within the legend border,
but behind the legend elements), and whether to use special effects like a drop shadow
or rounded corners.
For the border styles that have more than one line, you should use a width of at least two
points, otherwise it may be difficult to see your border distinctly.
Step 4: Symbol Settings
You can select whether your area symbols will be represented with rectangles, squares,
or ovals and whether the line symbols will be represented with horizontal lines, zigzag lines,
or "S" curves (on their side). The flatness of the zigzag or "S" curve lines will be the same
as set in the TOC Defaults for your project.
Step 5: Spacing Settings
You can change the:
* amount of space between the title (if you have one) and the rest of the legend.
* amount of space between columns (if you have more than one)
* amount of space between themes
* amount of space between theme names and their symbols and labels
(only for legends that aren't single symbol)
* amount of space between symbols and labels
* amount of space between each row of symbols
* the length of the symbols column
Things to Remember:
* The legend that is created as a result of using the Custom Legend wizard is a
graphic (versus a legend frame), and will not update automatically when you make
changes to the view or themes that the legend is based on.
* The legend that is created can be Ungrouped, which will allow you to make further
refinements to its appearance.
* When you specify that a specific number of columns be used, the legend that results
may not have that number of columns. This is because the Legend Tool is making sure that
no theme titles are at the bottom of one column, while its symbols are at the top of the next
column.
* If the resulting legend appears unbalanced, i.e., having a relatively small number of
elements in one column, you should try choosing a different number of columns, which
often resolves this situation.
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