8.2 Map Series Creation (Spatial vs. Bookmark Map Series)

Map Series Creation

A Map Series (formerly known as Data Driven Pages in ArcMap) allows you to automate the creation of a collection of map pages sharing the same layout. Instead of manually panning, zooming, editing text, and exporting 50 different maps, a Map Series iteratively updates the map frame extent, dynamic text, and layer visibility for each page, allowing for batch export. This is an essential feature for creating atlases, strip maps, or standardized reports.

ArcGIS Pro supports two primary types of map series: Spatial Map Series and Bookmark Map Series.

Spatial Map Series

A Spatial Map Series is driven by the features of a specific layer, called the Index Layer. The system creates one page for each feature in the index layer.

For example, if your index layer is a polygon feature class of 50 US States, the Map Series will generate 50 pages, with each page centering on a different state. The index layer can be polygons, lines, or points.

Configuring a Spatial Map Series

When setting up a Spatial Map Series in the Layout Properties, you must configure several key properties:

• Index Layer: The feature layer that defines the geographic extents of the pages.
• Name Field: The attribute field from the index layer used to name each page (e.g., State_Name). This populates the Page Name dynamic text.
• Sort Field: The attribute field used to determine the order of the pages (e.g., Population_Rank or Page_Number).
• Rotation Field: An optional field containing angle values to dynamically rotate the map frame for each page (useful for strip maps along a river or highway).

Map Extent Options

Controlling how the map frame scales and centers on each index feature is critical. The Spatial Map Series offers several extent options:

1. Best Fit: The map scale automatically adjusts so that the index feature fits entirely within the map frame, plus a defined margin (e.g., a 10% margin). This means the map scale will change from page to page depending on the size of the feature.
2. Center and Maintain Scale: The map frame centers on the centroid of the index feature, but the map scale remains fixed across all pages. This is useful for standardized grids where all index polygons are identically sized.
3. Data Driven Scale: The map scale for each page is read from a specific numeric attribute field in the index layer. This gives explicit, database-driven control over the scale of every single page.

Bookmark Map Series

A Bookmark Map Series is driven by a sequence of saved map bookmarks rather than features in a layer.

When to use a Bookmark Map Series

Bookmark Map Series are ideal when the areas of interest do not correspond to existing GIS features, or when you need explicit, manual control over the exact scale, rotation, and center of each individual page.

For example, if you are creating a report for 5 different project sites, and each site requires a very specific, hand-tuned view (some rotated, some at 1:1000, others at 1:5000), you can create 5 bookmarks and use them to drive the Map Series. You do not need to create an arbitrary polygon index layer or manage complex fields for rotation and scale. The pages take their names from the bookmarks themselves.

Dynamic Text Integration

Map Series leverage dynamic text to update page marginalia automatically as the map iterates through the pages.

For a Spatial Map Series, you can insert dynamic text that reads values directly from the index layer's attribute table for the current feature. This allows you to place text on the layout that says "Current Population: [value from table]".

Syntax example for an attribute field named Zoning_Code: <dyn type="page" property="attribute" field="Zoning_Code" domainlookup="true"/>

You can also use dynamic text to display the name of adjacent pages (e.g., "Next Page: Page 14", "North: Map 42"). This requires the index layer to have fields pre-calculated with the adjacent page information. Geoprocessing tools like Grid Index Features and Calculate Adjacent Fields are commonly used to prepare an index layer for this exact purpose.

Page-Driven Layer Visibility

Often, when generating a map series, you only want to highlight the data relevant to the current page, visually separating it from neighboring areas. ArcGIS Pro provides two main approaches to this:

Match on Map Series Page (Page Query)

If you have layers that contain an attribute linking them to the index layer (e.g., a Points of Interest layer that has a State_Name field matching the index layer), you can set a Page Query on that layer.

In the layer properties under Page Query, you configure it to only show features where the layer's attribute matches the current Map Series page name. As the map series iterates, the POI layer dynamically filters to only show POIs within the current state, hiding all others.

Clip to Index Feature

You can also clip the drawing of the map frame to the exact shape of the index feature. In the Map Frame properties, under the Clip options, you can choose to "Clip to current map series index feature." This will visually mask out all data (like aerial imagery, roads, and basemaps) that falls outside the precise geometric boundary of the current index polygon, creating a clean, cookie-cutter aesthetic for the focused map area. You can even choose to exclude specific layers (like basemaps) from the clipping process if you want them to provide continuous background context.