Use slides

In ArcGIS Earth, you can capture a map or scene of interest and add it as a slide. You can then export and share it to tell an interactive story with the information on the globe. In earlier releases, slides were called bookmarks.

A slide identifies a particular camera perspective that you want to save and refer to later. The information captured in a slide includes basemaps, layer visibility, daylight settings, camera position, extents, and pop-up descriptions. You can add the slide shared from the web scene or a web map with a different view to tell an interactive story.

To navigate through these locations, click the thumbnails of the slides. You can change the order, rename, update, remove, and manage slides as a group for presentation. You can also use the description in a slide's pop-up window to highlight information in the view that you want others to see.

Create slides

 The slides store the state of the scene, including camera position (or extent of the scene), the daylight settings, the selected basemap, and the status of the visibility checks in the Layers menu. This means that you can  create a slide for a specific point in time, such as a hurricane's location on a particular day. If you change views in the scene or change layer visibility, you can click this slide to return the scene to the state you previously saved in the slide.

To add slides to ArcGIS Earth and begin editing, complete the following steps:

1. Click Slides on the toolbar to open slides.
2. Select a slide group in the panel.
3. Navigate to an area of interest, adjust perspective, and click Add to save the current view as a slide.

   A slide thumbnail is automatically generated, allowing you to preview and identify the saved view quickly.

4. Click the slide, and zoom to the view you created.

Create a slide group

You can import bookmarks and a presentation from a web map, or slides from a web scene, into ArcGIS Earth. These items are converted directly to a slide group to build an animation.

To create a slide group in ArcGIS Earth, complete the following steps:

1. Click Slides on the toolbar to open slides.
2. Click Add in the slide panel to create a slide group.
3. Click the text area on the slide group tab and provide a name for the group.

Manage slides

  Once slides have been created, you can edit them using the edit button  . You can rename, update, remove, or reorder a selected slide as follows:

• Rename—In the text area, provide a new name for the slide, and press Enter.
• Reorder—Drag a selected slide to reorder it.
• Edit—Click the edit slide button to open the editing panel.
  • Image source—Click the edit image source button ,  and provide an image for the slide.
  • Description—Provide a title and detailed description for the slide.
  • Transitions—Drag the duration slider left or right to specify the length of transition. Drag the After slider bar or type a number in the text box to set a certain number of seconds before moving to the next slide.
• Update—Click to select a slide and zoom to its current view. Adjust the perspective, and click the update button   to refine the view. The thumbnail of the slide is updated as well.
• Remove—Click the remove button    to delete a selected slide.

Edit and save slides in a mobile scene package

You can edit and save slides in a mobile scene package (.mspk file). ArcGIS Earth loads a slide group for each scene in the package. If a scene does not contain slides, ArcGIS Earth creates an empty slide group named after the scene. The scene-based slide group cannot be renamed or removed.

To edit and save slides in a mobile scene package, complete the following steps:

1. Add a mobile scene package to ArcGIS Earth.
2. Click Slides on the toolbar to open slides.
3. Click Edit in the slide panel to enter edit mode.
4. Edit slides in the mobile scene package as needed.

   A yellow edited indicator appears on each modified slide group tab to show unsaved changes.

5. Click Done. The Save edits dialog box appears for each edited mobile scene package. Choose one of the following options:
   • Save—Save the slide edits to the original mobile scene package.
   • Save As—Save the slide edits to a new mobile scene package.
   • Discard—Discard the current slide edits.
   • Cancel—Close the dialog box and return to edit mode.

Note:

• In a mobile scene package, slides are stored as bookmarks.
• Slides in a mobile scene package store only the visibility state of layers in the package. Camera position, time, and other global app states are not stored.
• Local basemaps and terrain are not saved in mobile scene package slides. To save and view basemap or terrain settings in mobile scene package slides, use service-based basemaps and terrain.
• The original mobile scene package is not overwritten unless you click Save.
• After the mobile scene package is saved, you can open it in ArcGIS Earth on mobile devices and use the updated slides for scene navigation.

Play slides

You can play slides in sequence, starting from the selected slide. The play button is enabled once you've added a slide.

Select the slide that you want to start from. ArcGIS Earth automatically loops playback in a group. Once the animation begins, you can click the speed button to speed up or slow down playback. During playback, an indicator of slide player progress appears at the bottom of the slide thumbnail. Click the stop button   or click in the scene to stop playback.

Export slides

ArcGIS Earth supports exporting slide groups in the format of KMZ format files or image files. You can share slides by clicking Export on the slide panel.

Export slides as KMZ

To export slides as KMZ format files, complete the following steps:

1. Determine slide groups that need to be exported in the panel.

   Export as KMZ is selected by default.

2. Click the Export button, and specify the file name and file location.

   You receive an export result with the file location path, which you can click to check the exported KMZ format file.

Export slides as images

To export slides as an image file, complete the following steps:

1. In the Export panel, select Export as Image.
2. Select a slide group in the panel.

   The current active slide group is selected by default.

3. Use the Efficiency or Quality mode for processing.
   Efficiency mode prioritizes fast export times and smaller file sizes, which is ideal for quick sharing. It may reduce image quality, however. Quality mode ensures the highest image quality and resolution, which is designed for professional presentations. Export times and file sizes will be larger.
4. Click the Export button and specify the file location.

   The exported images are saved in a folder with the name of the selected slide group.

   A window showing progress pops up automatically. You will later receive an export result with the file location path, which you can click to review exported images.

Note:

• When exporting slides as images, 30 seconds is the lower limit of rendering duration for exporting a single slide.
• A slide that includes data sources from the web may take longer to render.
• When exporting slides as images, you can export only one group at a time.

Export slides as videos

To export slides as a video file, complete the following steps:

1. In the Export panel, select Export as Video.
2. Select a slide group in the panel.

   The current active slide group is selected by default.

3. Use the Efficiency or Quality mode for processing.
   Efficiency mode prioritizes fast export times and smaller file sizes, which is ideal for quick sharing. It may reduce video quality, however. Quality mode ensures the highest video quality and resolution, which is designed for professional presentations. Export times and file sizes will be larger.
4. Click the Export button, and specify the file location.

   The exported videos are saved in a folder with the name of the selected slide group.

   A window showing progress pops up automatically. You will later receive an export result with the file location path, which you can click to review exported videos.

Note:

Videos created from slides will be rendered at 1080p, 30fps by default.

Save slides

Slides are saved in the project in JSON format (bookmarks.json). See Project files for more information.