{"id":2323362,"date":"2024-05-07T11:19:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T18:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=2323362"},"modified":"2025-01-22T21:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T05:35:12","slug":"set-your-web-maps-and-scenes-up-for-success-in-arcgis-storymaps","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/story-maps\/constituent-engagement\/set-your-web-maps-and-scenes-up-for-success-in-arcgis-storymaps","title":{"rendered":"Set your web maps (and scenes) up for success in ArcGIS StoryMaps"},"author":32401,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[37131],"tags":[398132,368772,366492,24451],"industry":[],"product":[36611,380802],"class_list":["post-2323362","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-constituent-engagement","tag-arcgis-storymaps","tag-legend","tag-pop-up","tag-web-map","product-story-maps","product-arcgis-storymaps"],"acf":{"short_description":"Learn about the options available for configuring your web maps and scenes in ArcGIS StoryMaps to make them effective and impactful.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Note: Everything in this blog post applies to 3d web scenes as well as web maps (unless otherwise specified), so you can pretend that anywhere it says \u201cmaps\u201d or \u201cweb maps\u201d there\u2019s an \u201cand\/or [web] scenes\u201d appended.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the best things about ArcGIS StoryMaps is, of course, the ability to take web maps, drop them straight into any story or briefing, and use them in all kinds of versatile ways to support your place-based storytelling goals.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve likely noticed, though, that you can\u2019t edit a web map\u2019s content or appearance directly in ArcGIS StoryMaps, outside of adjusting layer visibility. That\u2019s because those maps are already produced by some pretty robust GIS tools \u2014 namely ArcGIS Pro and Map Viewer<\/a> \u2014 that have all the geospatial analysis and visualization power you need to create impactful cartography. A story or briefing is really just the vehicle for that cartography, providing context and related information through a narrative structure to explain something about the world we inhabit.<\/p>\n

However, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that web maps are purely plug and play once you\u2019ve brought them into a story or briefing. ArcGIS StoryMaps does provide several options that dictate how a given web map behaves or can be interacted with. This blog post will walk through each of them, explaining what they do and offering advice regarding when (or when not) to use them.<\/p>\n

What are the web map options in ArcGIS StoryMaps?<\/h2>\n

After you\u2019ve added a web map to a story (either to the main body of the story or as part of a sidecar slide) or a briefing, you\u2019ll see a pencil icon in a toolbar at or near the top of the map when you\u2019re hovering over it in the builder. That pencil takes you back into the map editor. On the left is the layer panel, listing all the layers in the map. At the top of that panel are a few more icons; one is a little gear, which turns the layer panel into an options panel when selected.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2323762,"id":2323762,"title":"webmapeditor","filename":"webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","filesize":13740,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/story-maps\/constituent-engagement\/set-your-web-maps-and-scenes-up-for-success-in-arcgis-storymaps\/webmapeditor","alt":"A screenshot of the top of the layer panel in the web map editor in ArcGIS StoryMaps with the Options tab selected.","author":"32401","description":"","caption":"","name":"webmapeditor","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2323362,"date":"2024-05-02 04:31:18","modified":"2024-05-02 04:31:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":414,"height":114,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","medium-width":414,"medium-height":114,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","medium_large-width":414,"medium_large-height":114,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","large-width":414,"large-height":114,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","1536x1536-width":414,"1536x1536-height":114,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","2048x2048-width":414,"2048x2048-height":114,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","card_image-width":414,"card_image-height":114,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/webmapeditor-e1714624404591.png","wide_image-width":414,"wide_image-height":114}},"image_position":"left-center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

The map options panel contains the following items; I\u2019ll cover each of them in turn:<\/p>\n