Esri Mapping Center - Ask a Cartographer

vanishing dynamic legends & scale bars

July 20 2011 | 5 comments
Categories: Map Elements

I create maps with dynamic legends and scale bars. Everything is fine except when I open the map to make some edits. All layout items that are linked to the map have vanished and I have to re-create them. Is there a solution to this problem? It's just a little more than frustrating to have to create the linked layout items more than once.

Mapping Center Answer:

We do not have dynamic legends but we do have dynamic scale bars if you are working with data driven pages. So I am a little confused about your question. In general, however, map elements added to the page layout should not be disappearing. In this case, I think it would be helpful for you to contact Technical Support so that they can work through this problem with you. Here is a link you can use to contact Tech Support.

missing from TOC or MXD posted by Craig Poynter on Jul 21 2011 8:27PM

I sometimes experience layers/datasets not being present in my MXD files when I open them. They are listed in the table of contents (TOC) but due to the source not being referenced they don't display. Is this what you are experiencing, or are the datasets missing altogether from the TOC and therefore the MXD?

Click the bang! posted by Aileen Buckley on Jul 22 2011 8:47AM

One quick solution to the problem Craig pointed out is to click the "bang!" (the red exclamation point) next to the layer that does not have referenced source data in the Table of Contents, and then set location of the source data. Any other data that are missing source references in that same GDB will also be referenced at the same time.

And remember that you can also use the option to save relative paths (rather than absolute paths) to the data. This is a property of the mxd so you set it when you click File on the main menu, then Map Document Properties, then on the General tab, set the option to "Store relative pathnames to data sources".

is XTools installed? posted by David B on Jul 25 2011 8:46AM

I saw this thread on the user forum
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/34762-Missing-Layout-features-Legend-Scale-Bar-Scale-Text?p=118457#post118457

Missing Layout Elements posted by Mark Knoll on Jul 25 2011 9:42AM

Xtools Pro 8.0 was the culprit. I upgraded to Xtools Pro 8.0 a few days before the problems began to happen. A few days after upgrading, I opened an older map to make some edits and found the scale bar, scale and north arrow missing. By following all the responses to my original question ( thanks for all your responses), I thought I would try removing Xtools from my system. Luckily I still had Xtools Pro 7.1. I reinstalled 7.1 and opened another older map and everything was exactly where it should be. There must be a bug in Xtools Pro 8.0.

Thanks again to all who responded. You all have saved me (and probably a host of others) alot of time and headaches.

Mark

Thanks for sharing your solution! posted by Aileen Buckley on Aug 2 2011 1:29PM

Thanks for sharing your solution with us, Mark! Good to know this about the software!

If you would like to post a comment, please login.