Manipulating Legends in ArcView®

• Classification and Color Ramps
• Normalizing the Data
• Loading Custom Legends

A legend on a map allows one to interpret the colors, symbols, contours, and annotation used on the map. ArcView allows users to interactively edit legends to create maps and presentations to display data.

To begin, go to the Project Window and click File/Open Project and choose the file called landcov.apr. The project may take a minute or two to load. Read and close the introductory page and then only the landcov.apr project window will be open. This window shows a list of the thematic views available in the project. Select the Tutorial View and click the Open button at the top of the list. This window may be moved and resized to make use of the full screen.

Next, click the Add Theme button to add the Horry County shapefile to the view. If you are working off of the CD-ROM, the shapefile is located in the following directory structure: d:/data/horry/bg_horry.shp.

Classification and Color Ramps

	In the View Legend, turn on the bg_horry.shp theme by clicking in the gray box. Notice when the theme is displayed it is a solid color. Different types of data were collected for this theme, including income and education level. To view them, bring up the Legend Editor by double clicking on bg_horry.shp.
	Using the Legend Type pull-down menu, select Graduated Color.

In the Classification Field pull-down menu, select P18_bach. This data represents the persons over 18 years of age in Horry County who have a bachelor's degree. Using the Color Ramps pull-down menu, you can change the color of the displayed data. When you are satisfied with your selections, click Apply. Your changes will be automatically updated in the View window.

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Normalizing the Data

The ArcView Legend Editor also gives you the option of normalizing your data. Using the Normalize by pull-down menu, select Persons. The numeric values listed in the Value and Label column should change. Click Apply to see the changes in the active View. For more information about normalizing your data, look in the ArcView Help under legends, normalize.

Note:You must save the legend you have just created in order to view it during your next session. To do this, simply click the Save button on the Legend Editor window. You may call the legend whatever you wish but you must use the .AVL extension. After you save your legend, it is a good idea to save your Project File as well.

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Loading Custom Legends

Existing custom legends can be loaded into any ArcView project file. To try it, open a new View and click Add Theme (in this example d:data/lidar/ciop.shp). The default legend does not do justice to the information contained in this file. To add a legend created specifically for this data set, open the Legend Editor dialogue box as in the previous steps. Click the Load button and navigate to the data/lidar directory and choose ctour2ft.avl. Accept the default field and apply the new legend to the View to see the elevation contours for Isle of Palms.

Isle of Palms: 2Foot Elevation Contours