Organizing style contents
Release 9.3 Last modified September 15, 2008	Print all topics in : "Styles and symbols"

About organizing style contents

The Style Manager lets you organize styles and their contents (symbols and map elements). You can cut, copy, paste, rename, and modify any style contents, and you can create new styles, symbols, and map elements.

You can create a new style and copy it into your personal style contents as well as symbols and map elements from other existing styles.

You may want to customize some of the styles provided by ArcMap by deleting the symbols and map elements you don't need.

You can easily distinguish which style folders contain map elements and symbols, which can be modified, and which are empty: a yellow folder indicates read/write permission, a gray folder indicates read-only permission, and a white folder indicates an empty folder.

If you want to print the contents of the Style Manager for reference, you can use a Developer Sample (style dump) that allows you to choose the style you want to print and displays the symbol gallery. The ESRI Developer Network contains detailed instructions on how to download and use the sample.

Referencing the styles you need

By default, ArcMap displays a robust set of generic symbols and map elements in the ESRI style and a wide range of industry-specific styles that complement the ESRI style. When a style is referenced, its elements, symbols, and symbol properties are available for you to use in a map document.
You can add more styles or remove styles at any time during an ArcMap session.

Importing other symbols to ArcMap style files

You can convert some of your existing symbols, including those from ArcView 3.x and ArcMap layer files, into ArcMap styles.

If you want to import ArcView 3.x legend files (.avl) into ArcMap, see Importing an ArcView 3 legend into ArcMap. You can also use some of your ArcView 3.x color palette files (.avp) in ArcMap by either importing an ArcView project into ArcMap or using a Developer Sample (see the ESRI Developer Network for more information on samples).

Learn about creating styles from layers in your current map and saving the current styles
Learn about importing symbology from an ArcMap layer file or from another layer

How to organize style contents

Referencing the styles you need

1. Click the Tools menu, point to Styles, then click Style References.
   
Your personal style and the ESRI style are referenced by default.


2. Check the additional styles you want to use.
   
3. Click the Add button to load more styles, then navigate to and click the styles you need.
   
4. Click OK.
   

Tips

You can reference styles in the Style Manager and the Symbol Selector dialog boxes. However, the Symbol Selector dialog box lists only the styles that contain the same symbols. You can use the custom ArcMap installation to load only the styles you want to have accessible in ArcMap. The ESRI_Optimized style contains both line and fill symbols that are designed to perform better while still maintaining a visual appearance that is close to their counterparts within the default ESRI style. The fill symbols in the ESRI_Optimized style show an average improvement of 60 percent in draw times over those in the default style. The line symbols can improve drawing times up to 58 percent over those found in the ESRI style.

Creating a new style

1. Click the Tools menu, point to Styles, then click Style Manager.
   
2. Click Styles and click Create New.
   
3. Navigate to the program's Styles folder.
   
By default, the Styles folder is installed with ArcGIS in the ArcGIS\Styles folder.

4. Type the name for the new style you're creating.
   
5. Click Save.
   

Tips

The Styles folder is installed in the \Styles folder where you installed ArcGIS. Your personal styles folder is installed under C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\ESRI\ArcMap. Modifying one of the ESRI-provided styles may result in a loss of edits when making changes or upgrades to the installed software. A hatch style stores the symbols and settings related to linear referencing. Learn how to create and work with hatch styles A representation style stores symbols and rules used in representations. Learn how to create and work with representation styles

Copying and pasting style contents

1. Click the Tools menu, point to Styles, then click Style Manager.
   
2. Click the style folder whose contents you want to view.
   
3. Right-click an element and click Cut or Copy.
   
4. Click another style folder of the same kind.
   
5. Right-click in the contents window and click Paste.
   
You can only paste into style folders that are the same type as the folder from which the element was copied.

6. Type a new name for the style.
   
You can change the name later by clicking Rename on the context menu.

Tips

You can use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, paste, and delete styles. The Styles folder is installed in the \Styles folder where you installed ArcGIS. Your personal style folder is installed under C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\ESRI\ArcMap. To delete style contents, right-click any map element or symbol and click Delete from the context menu. There is no undo for delete, so you may want to move the element to another folder as a backup. When you save a symbol, you can specify a name and category for class distinction. The category can be used to differentiate drawing methods and other criteria. You can also create subcategories of styles. Categories can be viewed on the Style Manager.

Deleting style contents

Click any map element or symbol and click Delete from the context menu.

Tips

The Styles folder is installed in the \Styles folder where you installed ArcGIS. Your personal style folder is installed under C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\ESRI\ArcMap. There is no undo for delete, so you may want to move the element to another folder as a backup.

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