Refreshing Data Driven Pages

Data Driven Pages gives you the ability to generate a set of output pages by taking a single layout and iterating over a set of map extents. In some cases, you may want to refresh an existing set of Data Driven Pages. Refreshing simply re-creates the pages using current Data Driven Pages parameters.

You will want to refresh if one of the following occurs after creating Data Driven Pages:

• Features were added to or deleted from the index layer.
• Edits were made to the sort field values.
• Edits were made to the name field values.
• Data Frame extent was changed due to interactive zooming or panning or changes to the map scale. (Refresh has no affect on other changes you make to the map, such as changing the rendering of a layer or applying a new coordinate system. These changes will be reflected in all appropriate pages. If you wish to go back to the original state, you will need to do this through the appropriate layer or data frame properties dialog boxes.)
• Edits were made to any field being used by Data Driven Pages for an index layer feature that is driving the current geographic extent.

Until you click Refresh, Data Driven Pages will retain the original set of pages. Once you click Refresh, the pages will correctly reflect new pages, deleted pages, a new sort order, and new names.

Some data changes will be automatically picked up by Data Driven Pages. These include edits made to:

• Rotation field values.
• Spatial reference field values.
• Data driven scale field values.

Changes to these fields will be picked up as Data Driven Pages iterates through the series, with one exception. If edits are made to any of the above fields for the current page's index feature, you do not see the changes right away. To see these changes, click the Refresh button.

What happens when I make changes to the...?

Map Document

Changes to the map document do not affect Data Driven Pages. You can change any of the document properties, such as document name, and not affect existing Data Driven Pages. If you save the map document to a version previous to 10, Data Driven Pages will be disabled. Data Driven Pages are not supported in ArcGIS versions earlier than 10.

Layout

Data Driven Pages do not lock any elements on the page or any layout properties. You make changes as you would normally. However, these changes are reflected in your pages. Data Driven Pages do not maintain a particular state of a map layout.

All static changes to the map layout, such as repositioning the north arrow, adding a neatline, changing the size of orientation of the page, or resizing a data frame, are reflected in all pages in the series. Refreshing Data Driven Pages has no affect on these changes. You cannot undo these changes using Data Driven Pages.

The Data Frame drop-down menu (available in the Setup Data Driven Pages dialog box) will always reflect the current list of data frames contained in the map document. Removing a data frame currently being used as the Data Driven Pages' Detail Data Frame resets the Data Driven Pages field parameters to their default values.

Layout view vs. Data view

You are not restricted to using only the layout view when Data Driven Pages are enabled. You can view and interact with the map in data view. Keep in mind that panning and zooming the map in data view affects what is being displayed on the layout. Consider refreshing the Data Driven Pages after viewing the map in data view.

Data Frame

Enabling Data Driven Pages does not restrict you from editing the properties of the data frame (or any other data frame in your map document). Some properties are always applied to all pages.

These properties include

• Data frame name
• Data frame description
• Reference scale
• Map and display units
• Annotation groups
• Map cache
• Size and position
• Frame
• Grids
• Layer order
• Extent indicator

You can make changes to the data frame as you normally would. You will see most of these changes reflected in each page of Data Driven Pages, regardless of whether you refresh the pages or not. For example, if you change the style of a grid being used or change the size and position of the data frame, each page shows these changes.

Refresh does not affect these properties.

There are three data frame properties that can affect each page, or if specific fields have been specified in the Data Driven Pages setup, a refresh of the pages overrides any settings you made manually.

These properties include

• Spatial reference
• Rotation
• Scale

Setting these properties for Data Driven Pages is optional. If you are not setting these fields, each page in your map series uses the values set on the General tab on the Data Frame Properties dialog box.

When you interactively change the data frame map extent, you are only changing the map extent for the current page. Clicking refresh snaps the map extent back to the appropriate extent for that page.

Index Layer

Enabling Data Driven Pages does not restrict you from editing the properties of the index layer (or any other layer in your map). You can make changes as you normally would. You will see most of these changes reflected in each page of Data Driven Pages, regardless of whether you refresh the pages or not. For example, if you change the rendering of the layer or change the visible scale range for the layer, each page shows these changes.

Refresh does not affect these properties.

These properties include

• Name
• Description
• Credits information
• Visible scale range
• Source
• Selection properties
• Visibility
• Rendering
• Labeling
• Relates

There are things you can do to an index layer that directly affect Data Driven Pages.

These include

• Adding or removing features
• Editing feature geometry
• Adding or removing a definition query
• Removing the index layer from the data frame

Changing the features of the index layer, such as adding or removing features, editing feature geometry, or applying a new definition query, is automatically reflected by Data Driven Pages. For example, if you delete a feature from the index layer, its corresponding page is also deleted. If you change the spatial extent of an index feature, the data frame map extent for the corresponding page also changes.

The only exception to this is if the index feature driving the current page is changed. The page does not immediately show this change. In this case, you need to refresh to update the current page and see the change.

Removing a layer currently being used as the Data Driven Pages' index layer prompts a warning.

The Layer drop-down menu (available on the Setup Data Driven Pages dialog box) reflects any valid layers that may have been added to or deleted from the data frame.

Selecting a different layer for the index layer resets the Data Driven Pages field parameters to their default values. Map extent options are not affected if either Best Fit or Center and maintain current scale are used. If you are using a Data Driven Scale, Data Driven Pages change back to Best Fit, since there is no guarantee that the new index layer has an appropriate field and values for Data Driven Scale. After making any changes, you should double-check all the Data Driven Pages parameters before clicking OK.

Index Layer Files

Enabling Data Driven Pages does not restrict you from editing the properties or values of Index Layer attributes, or fields.

These changes include

• Editing field values
• Adding or removing fields (including from table joins)
• Adding or removing a table join
• Changing the properties of a table join (inner vs. outer)
• Changing field alias

If you are editing a field or attribute that Data Driven Pages is not currently using, you do not have to worry about adversely affecting or having to refresh the pages when you are done. If you are editing attributes being used by the name or sort fields, you should refresh the pages. If you are editing attributes being used by the rotation, spatial reference, page number, or scale fields, you do not have to refresh the pages unless you are editing the attributes of the index layer feature driving the current map extent. In this case, you should refresh the pages.

The field drop-down lists in the Setup Data Driven Pages dialog box reflect all these changes automatically. They show newly added fields, newly joined fields, or newly applied field aliases. Conversely, the drop-down lists do not show deleted fields.

If you delete a field currently being used, Data Driven Pages uses the next valid field, or, in the case of rotation, a value of 0 will be used. This change is reflected the next time the pages are drawn. You may want to use the Refresh button on the Data Driven Pages toolbar to enforce the change for the current page.

Caution:

If you select a field for Spatial Reference or for Data Driven Scale, create Data Driven Pages (by clicking OK), then decide you do not want to use either field, you cannot simply choose none from the drop-down list to go back to a default value. Data Driven Pages uses the last valid spatial reference or scale used. These values could have been derived from the last Data Driven Pages page viewed or from a change made by manually interacting with the map. To get these data frame properties to the values you want, you need to manually make the change.

Unchecking the Enable Data Driven Pages check box disables Data Driven Pages functionality. This check box needs to be checked to create, view, and utilize Data Driven Pages. If you disable Data Driven Pages and click OK, all Data Driven Pages settings you made are cleared. Data Driven Pages utilize the default settings the next time you enable Data Driven Pages for this map document.

How to refresh Data Driven Pages

Click the Refresh Data Driven Pages button on the Data Driven Pages toolbar.