Mike’s GIS Exercise #3: Cartography (making the map pretty!)  The objective of this introductory GIS exercise is to show first-time users how to create a map using cartographic elements such as; scale bar, north arrow, title, and basemap!  Materials -Access to a laptop or computer that has ArcGIS 10.4 installed -The zipped SF_Maps GIS data folder (must email Mike to receive data at, WordPress does not support ArcGIS files: mtarantino@mail.sfsu.edu)  (At this point you should see a map of all the neighborhoods within San Francisco. Now that we have manipulated our data within ArcMap, we can create a final output map showing off the different neighborhoods. We will first add a basemap for a little bit of reference to what we are looking at. Next we will add our scale bar, north arrow, and title)  

 Steps 1. Adding the basemap.  

 1.1 Open ArcMap 10.4  1.2 Navigate to your SF_Neighborhoods project and open it.  1.3 Click the “Add Data” tool which is located on the second row of the tool bar.  1.4 Scroll down to “Add Basemap” and click it.  1.5 Select the “World Imagery” option and click apply. 

   

 (Now yours should look like this…) 

 

  

2. Adding Streets and Golden Gate Park  (Inorder to make out final map look nice and pretty we might want to add a layer in order to make our map stand out and be exciting for user and our audience to view.)  

2.1 Open the catalog tab on the right-side pane and expand the “folder connections” tab.  

2.2 Click and drag the streets layer into the ArcMap from the connected SF_Maps  folder. 

 2.3 Right click the sf_streets symbol and set the color as black and the width as 1.0 and  then click apply. 

 2.4 Click and drag the Golden Gate Park layer into the ArcMap from the connected  SF_Maps folder. 

 2.5 Re-order the layers in the left side contents tab and place the park layer above the  neighborhoods layer and the place the streets layer above the park layer. 

    

(Your ArcMap screen and map should now look like this…)  

   2. Setting the Layers Labels 

 3.1 Right click the sf_ngbhd layer on the left side pane. 

 3.2 Click to open the sf_ngbhd properties window.   3.3 Click the symbology tab within the properties window   3.4 Expand the categories symbology layer and choose unique values.   3.5 Click the “Add All Values” option at the bottom of the window and the click apply    

(This makes each neighborhood within the city to be represented by its own unique color )  

3.6 Open the display tab within the properties window.  

3.7 Change the transparency value from 0% to 40% and then click apply.  (This allows for the imagery beneath the neighborhoods layer to be visible) 

  3.8 Open the labels tab within the properties window. 

 

3.9 Check the box to enable features within this layer to be labelled.   

3.10 Open the symbol tab and set the label font to 10 and enable the mask.  

3.11 Click ok and apply to finish.  

3.12 Open the properties window for Golden Gate Park.  

3.13 Repeat steps 3.8-3.11 to enable the Golden Gate Park label.  

(Your map should now look like the one below.)  

  

 Step 4: Cartographic Elements  (At the bottom of the screen click the button that’s labeled layout view, this view allows for ArcGIS users to see what their final map will look like. In this view, the user can add a title, scale bar, and north arrow to you map.)  

4.1 Open your SF_Neighborhoods project in layout view and choose landscape view.  

4.2 Click the insert tab on the top of the screen    (The insert tab is where you can find any cartographic elements that you might want to add to your final map.) 

 4.3 Select add north arrow  

 4.4 Choose any north arrow that you want.   

(Once chosen, your north arrow will be added to your map, here in layout view your can resize your arrow.)  

4.5 Re-open the insert tab and select add scale bar.  

4.6 Choose any scale bar format that you want.   (Once chosen, your scale bar will be added to your map, here in layout view you can resize your arrow.)  

4.7 Re-open the insert tab and select add title.  (Your title will be added to your map, here you can edit and resize your title to your liking.)  

4.8 Title your map San Francisco Neighborhoods.  

4.9 Set the font for the title to 36 and make it bold.  

4.10 Click file, export map to JPEG     (Your final output map of San Francisco should look like the map on the next page.) 

  Congratulations you have finished Mike’s GIS Help Exercises! YOu now have the ability to download, analyze, and map GIS data! Hopefully you have learned some important skills that you will be able to utilize on your next GIS project.   

-Mike Tarantino