Add map tours

The map tour block combines a map with media and descriptive text to present a set of related places to your readers. Map tour blocks fill the display and create an immersive experience in your stories. There are two map tour layouts: Guided and Explorer. The guided map tour has two layout options: Map focused and Media focused. These two layouts highlight different aspects of the content by giving more space to either the map or the media. Guided map tour points are numbered in sequential order and readers can scroll through them to see the full list of places. The Explorer map tour has two layout options: Grid and List. This map tour layout can be useful for sets of unordered points because it invites readers to explore the points in any order. Each location in a Guided map tour and Explorer map tour includes a media panel that can contain up to five images or videos and narrative text.

Map tours in ArcGIS Enterprise

In the ArcGIS Enterprise environment, map tours use basemaps from ArcGIS Living Atlas by default. Alternatively, you can use a web map in the Web Mercator projection as a basemap; for more information, see the basemap options in the Map tour building tips section below.

Map tours continue to be available in the story builder even if access to ArcGIS Living Atlas content is not available in your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. In this case, the map tour basemap appears from the selected group in the basemap gallery if the default basemap is in the Web Mercator projection.

Note:

If the default basemap is not in the Web Mercator projection, you must select a web map as a basemap from My Maps, My Favorites, My Groups, or My Organization for your map tour. For more information, see Configure ArcGIS Living Atlas content.

Add a map tour to a story

Use the following steps to build a map tour:

1. Click the open button to open the block palette.
2. Select Map tour.
3. Choose whether to use photos to populate the new tour by selecting Start from scratch or Upload photos, or select Start with a feature service to use an ArcGIS feature layer or view to populate the tour.
   1. Start from scratch—Continue to step 4 to choose the map tour layout.
   2. Upload photos—Batch upload photos to create a map tour with a tour point created for each photo. After they are uploaded, reorder the photos and select or unselect photos that you want to be part of the map tour. Click Create tour to populate the map tour with the selected photos.

      Note:

      Geotagged photos are automatically located on the map.

   3. Start with a feature service—Select an ArcGIS feature layer or view with at least one point layer to create the map tour.

      If a point has multiple media attachments, the most recently added image will be displayed as the media for the tour point.

4. Choose a map tour layout: Guided or Explorer.
   1. For a Guided map tour, select the Map focused or Media focused layout.
   2. For an Explorer map tour, select the Grid or List layout.

   A map tour with one slide is added to the story.

   Note:

   You can change the layout at any time in the authoring process by selecting Change layout from the Options menu in the slide panel.

5. Add location, media, and narrative panel content to the slide.

   Note:

   Location, media, and narrative panel content cannot be updated for map tours created from a feature service.

   1. Click the Add location button to add a location. In the Tour point location pane, search for a location or click the map to add a tour point. When you've selected the location, click the Add location button to return to the map tour builder.
   2. Click the Add image or video button in the media panel to add up to five images or videos. After adding two or more media items, use the Reorder media button to rearrange the items. For more information, see FAQ: What media file types and sizes are supported in ArcGIS StoryMaps.

      Note:

      If you add a geotagged image, its location is automatically added as a point in the map tour.

   3. Add text, a button, and audio to the narrative panel. Add a list to the narrative panel using keyboard shortcuts: *, -, or 1. followed by a space.

      Optionally, you can format the text by selecting it and using the formatting toolbar.

6. Click the new slide button in the slide panel to add a slide.

   A new slide is added to the map tour after the currently selected slide.

7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add more tour locations.

   Note:

   A map tour created from scratch supports a maximum of 100 points. A map tour created from a feature service supports up to 200 points. To include more than 100 points, use additional map tour blocks to present them in a single story.

When the map tour is complete, continue authoring the story by scrolling past the end of the tour. The map tour immersive block undocks and scrolls out of view.

Map tour building tips

Consider the following when building a map tour:

• Set an initial zoom level that will be used for all the tour places, or set a custom zoom level for an individual stop using the scale drop-down menu in Map tour map options.
• In the Media focused layout of the guided map tour and both grid and list layouts of the Explorer map tour, click the Switch panel placement button to switch the media and narrative panels.
• In the Explorer map tour layout, click Change panel size (indicated by the double-headed arrow) to change the width of the panel between small, medium, and large sizes.
• In the guided map tour layout, click Change numbering to switch between ascending and descending order or change the starting number of the map tour. Setting the starting number can be useful if you have a long tour you want to break up into several small tours.
• In the map tour Map options, you can do the following:
  • Make a map tour 2D or 3D
  • Enable the current location button for readers. Enabling current location provides readers with a button that shows their location on the map.

    Note:

    If a story is embedded in an unsecured (HTTP) web page, the current location tool is blocked by the browser for security reasons. This feature only works on secure (HTTPS) pages.

  • Change the default basemap. In the Change basemap panel, you can change the basemap to one of the provided basemaps or browse to select a basemap from My Maps, My Favorites, My Groups, My Organization, or Living Atlas. For any map you select, all layers in the map appear in the map tour, but pop-ups are not available. Any changes made to the web map's contents are reflected in the tour.
  • Change the point color. The point color option assigns a new color to the tour points.
• Map tours are optimized for tablets and phones. On smaller screens, slides are stacked with the map at the top of the display and the media and narrative panels below.
• When building a map tour, a slide panel is displayed across the bottom of the page. You can use the slide panel to do the following:
  • Add and delete slides.
  • Hide slides.
  • Browse and move between slides.
  • Reorder slides.

Configure a data-driven map tour

A map tour created from a feature layer is known as a data-driven map tour. You have many options for configuring data-driven map tours in the Data options panel.

• From the Data tab, you can choose fields to provide information for the Place title and Place description for each tour point.

• Note:

  Supported HTML will be rendered from the description field. Currently supported tags include <strong> (bold), <em> (italic), and <a> (link).
• On the Media tab, you can set the image placement to fit or fill and set a maximum number of media to show per tour place. These options apply to all points in the tour. You can also choose fields for image Attribution and Alternative Text. If there are multiple images for a tour point, these fields will be used to provide information only for the first image.
• On the Filter & sort tab, you can set a maximum number of places in the tour, choose to only include places that have media, and sort the points in ascending or descending order according to a field in the feature layer.

  Note:

  Using feature layer attachments is the recommended way to apply tour images to a story, since they are optimized for display. However, on the Advanced tab, you can choose to use images stored on the web by using the Image URL field option and selecting a feature layer field that contains image URLs. This option should be used with caution. Linking to large, nonoptimized images will cause your map tour to load slowly. Ensure images used with this option are compressed and optimized for use on the web. They should be JPG format images that are a few hundred kB in file size. This option may be useful for converting classic map tours.

  Note:

  Video media is not currently supported for a tour created from a feature layer.

Duplicate a map tour

Use the following steps to duplicate a map tour with all of its slides:

1. Click More options in the map tour slide panel.
2. Select Duplicate tour.

The map tour is duplicated below.

Remove a map tour from a story

Use the following steps to delete a map tour and all of its slides:

1. Click More options in the map tour slide panel.
2. Select Delete tour.

The map tour is removed from the story.