2011

Overview of Styling Features
Styles control how features appear on a map. Default styles are applied to
features. When you add point and polygon features to the map, they appear
with default symbol, line, and fill styles. Polylines are given a default line
style. Each layer is given a distinctive color. For example, polygons are filled
with a color that is different from other polygon layers that are already in the
map. Change the default styles as needed.
For example, you can specify the scale ranges at which a feature is visible, set
line color, and add labels. To specify styles for a layer, you define a style for
a scale range. 0 - Infinity is the default scale range. Add narrower scale ranges
as you define styles to define how the data appears at various scales. For
example, you could create one scale range that displays roads with thick lines
when you zoom in, and create a second scale range that displays roads with
thin lines when you zoom out.
You can also create a theme that displays data in varying styles to indicate
different values.
NOTE This functionality is for geospatial features only. If you are styling a drawing
layer, see
Styling Drawing Layers (page 652).
Tell me more
Video
■ Show me how to make a layer visible
only at a certain scale range.
■ Show me how to create a scale range for
roads.
■ Show me how to replace points with
symbols.
■ Show me how to label features.
■ Show me how to label features with
automatic resizing.
■ Show me how to make the features on
a layer semi-transparent.
Procedure
■
To apply styles to points (page 646)
■ To apply styles to areas (page 650)
■
To apply styles to lines (page 649)
640 | Chapter 5 Visualization and Styling