You can include graphical notations to a map or scene with map notes. These notations may be permanent additions, or just temporary items used in quality control or other review communications. When you add map notes, they become individual spatial features in a map, so they remain positioned relative to other map data, regardless of coordinate system. Map notes are provided in a variety of color collections to be visible over a variety of map backgrounds. There are circles and pushpins to define unique locations, lines and arrows, semitransparent polygons, and different scales of text. You can change the colors or even the symbols as necessary.
Add map notes to a map or scene
Point, line, and polygon map notes are labeled with the contents of the Name field. You can change the label style or the field. Under Feature Layer, on the Labeling tab, in the Layer group, click Labeling to control whether labels are drawn. To learn more, see Learn about labeling.
- In a map or scene, on the
Insert tab in the Layer Templates group, choose a map note set from the gallery. In the case of Text Map Notes, choose the appropriate scale for your map—1:1,000, 1:25,000, or 1:250,000.
A new layer to contain the map notes is added to the Contents pane. For the map notes shown in the gallery with a pushpin next to a color scheme, three group layers are added , one each for point, line, and polygon notes.
Caution:
To ensure proper drawing in a scene, place the line and polygon map notes under the 2D Layers heading in the Contents pane.
- On the Edit tab in the Features group, click Create..
The Create Features pane appears.
- In the Create Features pane, choose a feature to add.
- Click
to open the active template. - When creating a point, line, or polygon map note, type a Name for the note and any additional information in the Notes field. When creating a text map note, specify the text for the note.
- In the Create Features pane, choose a construction method to add notes directly into the map or scene. See Learn how to create features or Learn how to create annotation features.
Review map notes
Explore the notation associated with map notes in a map or scene.
- On the Map tab in the Navigate group, click Explore.
- Use this tool to click on a map note feature to view a pop-up menu containing the Name and Note information associated with each.