How To Make a Map of a Country
To make a country map you need to download Shapefile of a
country from Diva-GIS http://www.diva-gis.org/Data . Click on country level data after that select
country of interest that on which you want to work in subject there are many
more option we are interested in Administrative area so click ok then go for
download.
After download completes unzip the folder and open the Arc
GIS for further work.
1 click on add data then a catalog will appear now you have
to give location of your folder
2 click on connect to folder and add the folder where you
have kept the data.
Add all the shapefiles with extension .shp to Arc GIS press
the Ctrl and hold then left click on the .shp files after that click add and it
will import you data to Arc GIS.
You will see 4
shapefiles are displace actual they are levels of a shapefile adm0 shows whole
the country, adm1 shows provinces; adm2 shows districts and so on this rule is
not always applicable its will differ if you works on a district there might be just 2 levels depends on scale.
You can observe the changing by uncheck the files. We want to make a map of Pakistan with is all
provinces so all we need is to remove or uncheck all the files except adm1.
Click on layout view to process on the map then right click
on the file you are currently working on click zoom to layer. A map have 5
important elements Map Title, Legends, North Arrow, Scale bar and Grids there
are more element but these are compulsory elements that a good map consist of.
Now click on insert to add all the important elements.
In this map no need
of data frame so click on Title give a name to your map in this case I am
working on Pakistan I will name it Map of Pakistan. To change the format of the title double
click on the title displace in the layout or just right click on properties a
window will appears go for change symbol . Make the changes as wish color,
style, size etc. After making changes click ok.
Again go to insert
and add North arrow after click on it if you want changes click on properties
and make changes on you comfort. After
making changes click ok.
Now 3rd element which is very important the Scale
bar, again go to insert and add scale. When the scale Bar is added, to make
changes go to properties by right clicking on the scale bar. Change the
Division units to meters, Kilometer or change the number of division and see
the changes. After the changes click ok.
Right click on the map go to properties and click on Grids
add new grid just go by pressing Next,next and next. Now click on apply and
click ok. For making changes in size, Degree, minutes, second and etc right
click on the map go to properties again.
Now make changes in size, color, size etc, and further more
if want to remove minutes and seconds from your map just click on additional
properties and uncheck the option click apply ok and see the changes. There is
no need of labeling the entire map just unchecking the label axes Top and left,
two sides are enough.
To change the color just left click on the box in color and
the desire on. Finally you map is ready now it’s time save your go to file in
Arc GIS at the top click save as name it and save in your desire location it
will save in Arcmap Doc. If you did not
save in Arcmap doc you figure out some mistake to remove them you had to work
from beginning to save our self from such blunders and to save our time also.
Next time whenever you want to make change just open the Arcmap file and edit
your map again.
The finally
representation of your map again go to file click export map name it save it in
your desire format and it will looks like this.
