Posts Tagged ‘style manager’
Saving symbology to use again
Problem: You have encountered or created some really nice symbols and want to stash them away for future use.
Sometimes it takes forever to get a symbol just right. And sometimes you’re looking at a map or layer file made by someone else and just love what they’ve done. In either case, it is not necessary to repeat the work, because you can save symbology definitions in a couple different ways.
The ESRI Streetmap package comes with a layer file that can be used to produce pretty maps from the data. In particular, I like the orange star symbol they use for state capitals.
In order to save it for re-use, I would follow the steps below. These same steps also can be used to save line symbols, fill symbols (for polygons), and font definitions (for text labels).
Bring up the Layer Properties, Symbology tab, and double click on the symbol to open the Symbol Selector. (For text labels you get to the Symbol Selector by going the Labels tab and pressing the Symbol… button). On the symbol selector screen there is a Save… button. If you press it, it will ask you to give the symbol a name and a category.
That’s really all there is to it! Your saved symbol will now appear at the top of the list of symbol choices. It will be there whenever you open ArcMap from now on, available for use like any other symbol. In addition, if you go to the Category drop down you will be able to see only the symbols in the category you just created. So, for instance, I could save all the ESRI Streetmap symbols I like, and give them that same category name to make them easy to find later. (Note: The new category may not show up right away, but if you open and close ArcMap it will be there next time).
So, how does ArcMap save these symbols and where does it look for them next time? It saves them into something called a .style file. Every custom symbol defintion that you save is stored in your personal style file, located in \ApplicationData\ESRI\ArcMap\username.style. The ESRI styles are stored in \Program Files\ArcGIS\Styles. Both your personal style and the default ESRI style load every time ArcMap does. You can access the other ESRI styles by clicking on the More Symbols button in the symbol selector.
Just like layer files, you can manipulate these style files and share them with others. I found a cool one that Brady Davis shared back in 2005 to use as an example. He created a style based on Google Maps. You can download it at: http://conversationswithmyself.com/181/ Once you unpack it, you can add it to ArcMap by pressing the More Symbols button and selecting Add…
You can get to all the new Google symbols by navigating through the symbol selector for different symbol types. But if you’d like to take a quick peek at everything all at once, that’s what the Style Manager is for.
You can open the Style Manager by going to Tools –> Styles –> Style Manager in the main ArcMap interface. You will see your personal style there, the ESRI default style, and any other styles that you may have added or turned on. Here’s how the Google style looks:
You can see from the folder names that you can control much more than just point, line, fill and text symbols with the style manager. Folders are colored yellow if they have something in them.
Also, with the style manager, you can create new styles, and copy and paste elements from one style into another. So, you could copy all your favorite symbols into you personal style. Or, you could create and populate a style specifically for sharing with others. You can also delete elements you don’t like to reduce clutter.
In addition, Tools –> Style –> Style References lets you pick which styles will show up in the symbol selector window. So, you could create an mxd that only references a custom style you have created, thereby limiting the user’s options to a list of standard symbols.
So, with just a little tweaking I used the Google style to googleize a section of downtown Richmond.
Not too shabby! That’s the power of styles.
Tags: style manager, symbol