Project planning for my monster map and how it’s going…

My map project was sailing smooth, but just yesterday I ran into some problems. (Hopefully another meeting with ArcGIS specialist that I’m having tomorrow will troubleshoot these issues.)

So far, I’ve learned to use storymap and how to translate my offline map into an online version of ArcGIS. The process seems simple enough. I first have to decide which feature of the map would be incorporated into my base map. Storymap doesn’t allow you to make ANY changes after you import the exported data, so I have to be sure of what I’m presenting before I export it.

The first problem I’m having is that storymap only allows vector data to be transported. All of my analysis is done on desktop version and this cannot be shown online. The solution could be that I do analysis (such as minimal bounding and krigging) online after I get my exported base map but it seems impossible to do what I want. The aesthetic is just wrong. Because the heart of this project is at comparison/contrast between gender, I need different symbols or at least colors to show the contrast. But one map only allows one style.

So, I went to a different storymap style which lets you to have two different maps and compare those. Now then, a bigger problem. My desktop version map won’t be exported. I have all the points, lines, shapes, analysis there but these grouping of layers won’t be translated let alone be selected separately. The problem is that I have different attribute tables coming from multiple excel sheets not one.

If I find a way to select and filter out what I need from my map and divide & export this into multiple maps (ex. 1. male monster points vs female monster points, 2. male author lines vs female author lines, 3. male monster monstrosity krigging vs female monste monstrosity krigging, etc.), I think the storymap would look so….. good. I was very excited when I started tweaking with storymap since I found a perfect formatting and a narrative (developed out of my cartographer’s statement and will be turned into a conference paper-like essay) that fits so well!

So for now, I’ll have to troubleshoot this issue & if it turns out that I can’t in time for the presentation, I’ll have to find out whether the LEADR lap is equipped with ArcMap so that I can at least show what I initially planned to do and will be doing…

 

Link to my revised workplan