Cartographic Skills - Mod 7
This week's lesson was to show population densities as well as wine consumption in Europe by creating a Choropleth map and using either graduated or proportional symbols. The lesson started in ArcMap by adding the shape file for the data set and classifying it. We started out excluding some of the outliers so our data wouldn't be so skewed. After perusing the different classification options I chose to go with Natural Breaks because it seemed to most accurately represent the data. I do wish now that I had gone with 6 classes instead of 5 but it's too late now to go back.
The next step after that was to add the shape file again on a second layer for wine consumption. For this data set I had wanted to go with a proportional symbol, but when I did I was not at all happy with the results. I tried changing classes from fewer to more and changing the symbol size by adjusting the Min Value, but everything I tried still left the larger symbol too large and the distribution of the data by the symbol just did not seem accurate. Eventually I decided on a Graduated Symbol with a Natural Breaks classification and 5 classes. Again I played around with the classes a bit because I didn't care for the size of the smallest symbol, but I felt the data was accurately represented so I stuck with what I had.
I chose not to add any text in ArcMap because I knew it would get clumped together in AI and it would be a pain separating it out to adjust. So I switched over to layout view to add my inset and map elements. For my inset I created a new data frame then added the data to two layers and repeated the process of classifying them. Once I finished with that I remembered I could have just copied the layers from the original data frame and they would have been good to go. After banging my head on the desk for a while I moved on to adding my legend. I puttered about with this for a while trying to find a layout that would make use of this week's lesson, but in the end it just seemed the best legend style for the layout of the map was just a plain old ordinary one. I did decide not to put a boarder around it this time though because I was working around the image and I didn't want to block anything out, but I still wanted the legend large enough to read. With the boring old legend in place I added the rest of my map elements then exported to a jpg file just to make sure everything looked right before exporting to an AI file.
Once in AI I checked my print preview to make sure everything had come over right then exported to another jpg file just to be sure. And of course it didn't. I was really surprised to find a couple inches of white space around the top and right side of my map. I spent a considerable amount of time searching for an explanation for this and tried multiple things to try to fix it but nothing was working. Finally I posted a question about it on the discussion board then started the long, arduous process of cleaning up the layers. It's getting easier to recognize what's what, but it's still a pain to separate out all the individual elements from the groups they get clumped into by AI. That was probably the most time consuming part of the whole lab, but I had to separate out the wine symbols so I could move them around to locate them more aesthetically and out of way of the labels. Finishing, I turned off that layer then proceeded to enter all the labels for the countries and get them placed correctly. With them in place I turned the symbol layer back on and moved them around to fit in with the labels.
At this point I was pretty much done and was going to look into substituting my circle symbols with a symbol that represented wine, but first I wanted to make sure what I had was safe in case I messed up beyond repair and figure out my paper space issue. I went through and exported it several times after trying different things but nothing seemed to make any difference. I kept checking the discussion board for suggestions and tried what I could, then finally, on my last effort before giving up for the day, I noticed there was a little box on the export page about using the artboard. I checked that box and viola! It finally worked. But at that point it was already so late in the day I decided to forgo the possible extra .5 points in extra credit and just left my symbols as circles. I really had wanted to play with that for a bit, but after 10 hours of working on this just today alone I decided I'd had enough and decided to move on to the Process Summary and this Blog.
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