Styles are collections of reusable items such as symbols and other assets that appear on maps, scenes, and layouts. You add styles to a project to make them available in symbol and other element galleries.
Manage the contents of a style
Styles contain different types of style items categorized in the style classes listed below. Style classes can be empty. Many styles have only the symbol style classes populated with items.
- Point symbols
- Line symbols
- Polygon symbols
- Mesh symbols
- Text symbols
- Dimension styles
- Maplex label placements
- Standard label placements
- Colors
- Color schemes
- Grids
- Graticules
- Legends
- Legend items
- North arrows
- Table frames
- Table frame fields
- Scale bars
- Map surrounds—This style item class is a container for specific items intended for defense mapping layouts. You must be licensed for the Defense Mapping extension to place map surrounds in a layout.
Explore the contents of a style
The contents of styles are viewed and managed from a catalog view. In a catalog view, you can see all the styles in the project. In each style, you can see the items in each style class, and for each style item you can view (and in some cases modify) its description and graphical properties.
To explore the contents of a style, follow these steps.
- Make a catalog view active. To open a catalog view, on the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog View
. - Ensure the Details panel is open. On the View tab, in the Options group, click Details Panel
. - In the Contents pane, click the Styles folder
to see a list of all the project styles. - Click a style to highlight it.
In the Details panel, the name, status, description, tags, color management information is shown, along with a list of the style classes in the style that contain style items.
- Optionally, in the Details panel, click a style class to see and manage the style items in that style class.
As a shortcut, you can open a style's details panel directly from the Catalog pane. In the Catalog pane, on the Project tab, open the Styles folder . Right-click a style and click Manage Style 
. Or, click the Manage Styles button in the Gallery mode of the Format Symbol pane to go directly to the Styles folder of the project in a catalog view.
Display the contents of a style class
You can also browse the style classes of a style from the ribbon.
Under Manage on the Styles tab in the Organize group, open the Show drop-down menu. Only populated style classes appear in this list.
You can choose between a tile view or column view when style item names are long. On the View tab, in the Options group, click the Display Type drop-down arrow 
. Choose Columns or Tiles 
.
You can sort style class items in an active catalog view. Style items can be sorted in columns or tiles. With columns, you can click the column headers. With tiles, on the Styles tab, in the Organize group, click the Sort drop-down arrow. You can sort tiles using the By ID 
or By Name 
options. To revert to the default sort, on the Styles tab, in the Organize group, click the Default drop-down arrow and click Default Sort.
You can investigate style items in the Preview pane. On the View tab, in the Options group, click Details Panel , and click the Preview tab.
Create symbols and style items in a style
You can create symbols and style items in any editable project style, including your Favorites style. Layout style items (north arrows, scale bars, grids, and graticules) cannot be created directly in a style, but as you use these items in layouts you can save them to a style.
Follow these steps to create style items in a style.
- Make a catalog view active. To open a catalog view, on the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog View .
- Ensure the Details panel is open. On the View tab, in the Options group, click the Details Panel button .
- In the Contents pane, click the Styles folder to see a list of all the project styles.
- Click an editable style to highlight it. If you have not added any custom styles to the project, pick your Favorites style.
- Under Manage, on the Styles tab, in the Create group, click the New Item drop-down arrow and choose the type of style item to create.
A style item with default properties is created in the corresponding style class of the selected style.
You can also create style items in a style by copying existing items from another style. The system styles that are included with ArcGIS Pro are read-only, but you can copy style items from them (or from any other style) into editable styles and customize them as necessary. Both styles must be present in the project. If you are copying many items, it may be easier to open two separate catalog views and arrange them side by side in the application so they are both visible simultaneously.
To copy style items from another style, follow these steps:
- Explore the contents of a style and highlight one or more style items. Press Shift or Ctrl while clicking to select multiple items from one style class.
- Right-click a selected style item and click Copy
. - Browse to and highlight another style. Right-click and click Paste
.
Your Favorites style is a good place to keep style items you use often. Their contents are always shown at the top of the galleries. This style is also a good place to hold items temporarily, or test things out. As a shortcut to copying and pasting items from other styles into your Favorites style, click to highlight an item, right-click, and click Add to Favorites 
.
Modify symbols and style items in a style
To help you organize and search for style items, each has metadata as outlined in the following table. You can view and modify these on the Description tab in a catalog view. If multiple style items are selected, the changes you make here apply to all style items selected, possibly overwriting other information.
Name | A descriptive or identifying name. Names do not have to be unique within a style, but it is easier to keep them organized if they are. The name of a symbol is used in symbol searching along with tags. |
Category | In most cases, this is an optional property that you can use to further organize style items. When you search for symbols in galleries, you can group the results by this category. In some system styles, category is used to ensure the correct type of style item appears in certain situations. |
Tags | Tags are applied to style items to make them discoverable in galleries. Separate tags with semicolons. Searches are performed on the style item name, the category, and the tags, so there is no need to repeat name or category words in the tags. |
Style | The path of the style the current item is contained within. |
Key | The key is a unique identifier of a style item. It is automatically generated, but you can modify it if necessary. Style item keys must be unique within a style. |
The graphical properties of a style item are on the Properties tab in a catalog view. These differ for each style item type. Editable properties are limited when you select multiple style items. Some types are not editable even if the style they are contained in is editable.
The Preview tab shows you what the item looks like. See Preview the current symbol for tips on previewing symbols on this tab.
To explore or modify the description or the properties of symbols or style items, follow these steps:
- Explore the contents of a style and highlight one or more style items. Press Shift or Ctrl while clicking to select multiple items from one style class.
- Ensure the Details panel is open. On the View tab in the Options group, click Details Panel .
- In the Details panel, click one of the following tabs:
- Choose the Description tab for the name, category, tags, style path, and key of the item.
- Choose the Properties tab for the graphical properties of the item.
- Choose the Preview tab to see a graphical preview of the item.
Upgrade a style
The underlying structure of symbols and other styles may change with successive releases of ArcGIS Pro. This means that styles created on earlier versions may not be current. Styles that are not current can still be used in a project. You can see their items in galleries, and select to use them. The styles are read-only until they are upgraded to the current version. You cannot add, delete, or modify the contents of a style until you upgrade it. You may experience a minor drop in performance using noncurrent styles as well.
- Make a catalog view active. If a catalog view is not open in your project, on the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog View .
- In the Contents pane, click Styles.
The catalog view lists tiles of all the project styles.
- Click a style in the catalog view.
- Open the Details panel, if necessary. To do this, on the View tab, in the Options group, click Details Panel .
The name, status, description, and tags are listed for the style in the Details panel.
- If the status indicates that the style is read-only because it was created with an earlier version of ArcGIS Pro, click Upgrade to upgrade the style. In the catalog view, you can also right-click the style and click Upgrade.
Unsupported styles
If the status indicates that the style is not supported, it is because the style was created in or upgraded by a newer version of ArcGIS Pro, or the style is somehow corrupt. Check the path where the style is located; a copy of the style for the correct version may have been generated. Add that version instead.