11.
Working with a Layout
Adding a north arrow to a layout
Moving, resizing, and deleting elements
11. Working with a Layout
A layout lets you
display views, charts, tables, imported graphics, and graphic primitives. You
create a layout from the components in your project such as views, charts, and
tables. You can also draw various graphics on the layout too.
Let’s look at the layout
below. The following layout has been made in ArcView. We will step through how
this layout can be made from the start.
The first step is to
prepare the data. The source data comes from Census 2000 Gateway (Summary file
3) and US National Atlas (county boundary). We showed how to join attributes
with spatial boundary in the module
8.
The attribute we are
interested in is the percentage of the foreign born in each county. For
example, there is 5 % foreign born in Erie county and 46% in Queens county
according to census 2000. A histogram can give you a better idea what is going
on. We can make a histogram using both table and chart document. In a table,
summarize on the field indicating the foreign born percent.
Open a summary table.
Click the Create Chart button 
.
In the Chart Properties
dialog box, add [Count] to Groups list, and choose [Foreign Born (%)] for Label
list. The chart is grouped over the field by default, but in this case grouping
by this field does not really help the interpretation. Rather we can use
records as a data group. Click the Series from Records/Fields. The records are
shown in the x-axis, and the fields are shown in the legend. The histogram
suggests the attribute is negatively skewed.
Maps showing the
proportion of the foreign born and their birthplaces can be made in a similar
way as we demonstrated in the module 3.
If the maps are ready, we can put them all into the layout. Suppose you have
worked on five views, and one chart as shown below in the project window.
Open the Layout. In the
project window, click the New button when the Layouts icon is highlighted. The
layout document will be open with the name Layout1 by default. You can change
the name of layout using Cntrl-R key in the project window.
The page can be set up
in a landscape mode. Select the Page Setup… in the Layout
menu. When the Page Setup dialog box pops up, choose the landscape on in the
Orientation item. Press OK button.
Maximize the layout
window by double-clicking the title bar. It will provide an proper resolution
to add several documents. There is the Frame tool 
in the toolbar. This tool allows you to
add View
, Legends
, Scale
bar
, North
Arrow
, Chart
, Table
, and Graphic
(all
items needed to make a nice big poster). When the tool has subcomponents (like
a Draw tool in a view), you can list them by dragging the mouse on this tool.
Add a view: Clicking
the View Frame. Drag the mouse drawing the rectangle. The View Frame Properties
dialog box will pop up. Select the view you wish to add. Similarly you can more
views.
There is the Pointer tool 
. You can
use this to select, move, resize, and delete any element. Click the Pointer
tool. Then place your mouse on the view you just added. The mouse will look
like a cross arrow (you can move with this) when you place the mouse in the
middle, or like an one-way arrow (you can resize with this) when you place the mouse
in the edge. Place the edge, and enlarge the view. You can also delete the
frame by entering delete key while selecting the element you wish to delete.
When there are four tics at the four edge of the frame, it means the element is
selected by pointer tool.
Add a legend. Use the
Legend Frame tool 
(one out of many Frame tools as seen in
the View Frame tool). The legend can be thought of as the Table of Contents in
a view. Themes that are turned on will be displayed. This legend has to be
associated with the view you just added. The Pointer tool applies to all elements,
so that you can move or resize the legend as well using the Pointer tool.
What if you want to
change the look of the map shown in the layout? Does it mean that you have to
delete the view frame, and add the new one? No. Because the layout is
dynamically linked to the view (when LiveLink is checked in the View Frame
Properties dialog box), the change made in a view can be immediately seen in
the layout also.
Let’s change the look of
the foreign born percentage map. The normalized attributes like percentages are
eligible for the Graduated Color map. (Choropleth maps (i.e. maps showing the
different values in the area) can be misleading due to the effect of variant
area sizes in case the attribute is not normalized.) The graduated color/symbol
map uses the natural break method for classifying the values by default.
However, standard deviation method is also useful especially for displaying how
far the values are deviated from the mean. Therefore we will be able to focus
on the cases where the values are positively deviated from the mean as shown in
different colors used. Open the Legend Editor dialog box by double-clicking the
theme name in the Table of Contents. Click the Classify… button on the upper
right. In the Classification dialog box, choose Standard Deviation for the Type
list, then press OK button.
Now open the layout. The
new map is shown in the layout also without a need to change the view frame in
a layout repetitively.
Add a chart: Click the
Chart Frame tool. Draw
the rectangle with the mouse on the area where you wish to add the chart.
Suppose you added the chart. Now the layout might look like this.
Where is the chart?
ArcView adds the chart to the layout when the chart is open. Maybe it is likely
that you closed chart. Just open the chart.
Add a north
arrow:
Click the North Arrow Frame tool. Place
the mouse on the area you wish to add the north arrow. You can add a Scale Bar
in the similar way. But the scale bar is associated with different views, so it
is recommended to add one scale bar for each view.
Add an image: You can
also embed a separate image file into the layout. Click the Picture Frame tool. Drag
the mouse, and select the file by pressing the Browse… button. The file has to
be picture files such as “.bmp” or “.gif”.
The UB logo image has
been place in the bottom right.
Sometimes
different frames may overlap, so you may have to decide which one to be place
in the front or back. The Bring to Front 
and the Sent to Back 
do this job. Simply click the element
you wish to manipulate with the Pointer tool, and click one of the two button
as you like. ArcView draws the elements in the order you added by default, but
you can change the order using these buttons.
Add a text: Click the
Text tool 
. (You
can choose the style from the list). Place the mouse on the top in the layout.
You can change the font as well from the Text Tool Defaults from the Graphic
menu. Resize the title as you like.
You also want to report
the statistics of the foreign born as well. In a table, choose the field on the
foreign born percentage, and choose the Statistics from the Field menu. You may
be able to copy this information, and paste them in the Text Properties dialog
box.
Export the
layout:
You can export the layout as a separate file. Choose the Export…from the File
menu. WMF, EPS, PS, and JPEG file formats are supported. Actually you can also
export the view only (the Export… from the File menu in a View).
