Creating a Choropleth (Shaded) Map of US States in ArcGIS

Before you try to make a map of US states for some data, you should have entered the data into an Excel spreadsheet and saved it as a dBaseIV file on Excel. Be sure you have spelled all of the state names correctly, or it will not work. Also, name the column for your state names State Name. Name the column for your data, also. Call it what you want, but remember it for later. This Excel file must be closed before you go into ArcGIS to try to join it to a map.

1. Double-click Shortcut to ArcGIS on desktop.

2. Double-click the ArcMap icon

3. On the ArcMap dialog box that comes up, choose "A new empty map" then click OK.

4. A window titled "Untitled-ArcMap-ArcView" comes up. On the toolbar above the main window, click the "+"
icon to add data to your map.

5. The Add Data dialog box comes up.

6. On the upper right of the box, there is a toolbar including a button with an arrow pointing to the right. When you move your mouse over the button, a small box will identify it as "Connect To Folder". Click this button, and a "Connect to Folder" box comes up.

7. In the Connect to Folder box, double-click "Apps32 on Poseidon (G:)" then double-click "Arcgis83", then "arcgis", then click OK, which will bring you back to the Add Data dialog box.

8. From the Add Data dialog, double-click the icon named "bin", then from the succeeding window double-click "TemplateData", then from the succeeding window double-click "USA"

9. From the list of (.shp) files that come up, double click on "states.shp"

10. A map of the US states should come up in your main window.

11. Now, we want to create the standard look for this map. So, click on the View menu at the top of the window, then, choose the command Data Frame Properties.

12. When the Data Frame Properties dialog box comes up you should click on the Coordinate System tag.

13. The lower box called "Select a coordinate system" should be active, and under "Custom" it should have highlighted "GCS_North_American_1983". You should click the icon just above called "Predefined", then under that click "Projected Coordinate Systems", then under that click "Continental" then under that click "North America".

14. You should get a list of globe icons, from that list click on "USA Contiguous Albers Equal Area Conic" and then click OK. You should see a more compact view of the US in your window.

15. On the tools toolbar (off to right of window) click on the magnifying glass with a "+" sign. This is the zoom-in tool.

16. Assuming you want to focus on the continental 48 states, you can use the zoom-in tool to click a box around the lower 48. Click just NW of Washington State, then drag the box to SE of Florida, so the entire lower 48 is in the window. If you do not like your view, you can return to the previous view and try again by clicking on the arrow that points left on the tools toolbar. It is called "Go Back to Previous Extent". Then you can try zooming again. You want a bit of open space around your lower 48. Once your lower 48 is nicely positioned in your window you can proceed. Anytime the view of your map is not correct, you can use this Go Back to Previous Extent command to get back where you were.

17. Now, we are going to join your data for the states to the map for the states. On the narrow window to the left of your main map window (the table of contents) right click on the word "states". Move your mouse down to the command "Joins and Relates" and slide right to the command "Join…" click it once, and the Join Data dialog box comes up.
        *For #1 in the box "Choose the field in this layer…" choose STATE_NAME
        *For #2 in the box "Choose the table to join to this layer…" click the browse button and use the "Connect to Folder" button to find the directory for the (.dbf) file you saved in Excel. Click OK.
        *In the Add dialog box, click on the name of your (.dbf) file, then click Add.
        *For #3 in the box "Choose the field in the table…" choose State Name. Then, click OK. Your join should be complete now.

18. To check if your join was successful, right click "states" on the table of contents. Slide down and click "Properties".

19. In the Layer Properties box click the "Symbology" tab.

20. On the left of this box there is a smaller box topped by the word "Show:". In this box click "Quantities" then click "Graduated Colors".

21. To the right of the "Show" box find the label "Fields" below which you will find "Value:". Scroll down this list and you should find the name you gave your data column back in the (.dbf) file. If you find it, then your join was successful. If not, then somehow your join did not work.

22. Assuming you were successful, click on the name of your data column. The computer will automatically break it into five categories, which is usually good for the states. You can change the color if you wish by clicking on the arrow just to the right of the box for the color ramp and choosing there. Once you are finished, click OK.

23. Your map should come up showing the higher values in darker shades of your color. Lower values will be lighter shades.

24. To prepare your map for final printing, find the buttons on the lower left of your map window. One is a small globe for the Data View. You should be in this view. Just to its right is a small button with a paper icon on it. That is the Layout View. Click on that, and you should get an awkward looking map of the US on a portrait oriented paper with a neatline around it. The neatline should be blue and have 8 buttons positioned around its perimeter. If it does not, click once on the neatline until the buttons appear.

25. From the File menu, choose the Page Setup command, and in the Page Setup Box do the following:

26. Back at the Layout View, you should use the buttons around the neatline to make the map more compact. Pull in the top and bottom of the neatline by grabbing, one at a time, the button at the top center and the button at the bottom center. Once you have the lower 48 in good proportion, use the corner buttons to make the map larger until it fills most of your paper.

27. Under the Insert menu at the top of the page, choose Title. A box for a title will appear at the top of your map. Type in your title. Once you have finished typing it, click off the title once, then click on it again and you may move it to the center, up or down, etc. You may right click it to change the size of your font, etc. Then click OK to get back to the Layout View.

28. Finally for your Legend, you should go to the Insert menu, Legend command. The Legend Wizard will come up. For the first box, just click Next. The next box has the title of the legend. You may want to use this to complement your big title above. It should not be just the same. Perhaps you could mention your units, and the date of your data.

29. For the rest of the Legend Wizard just click through the defaults, then OK at the end.

30. Back at the Layout View you should move your legend to the lower lefthand corner of your neatline, just south of Arizona and Calif.

31. To clean up the legend, right click on it. Then, click Properties.

32. In the Legend Properties box, click on the Items tab at the top. Then, under Legend Items, click on states. To the right, the Style button should become active. Click on that, and the Legend Item Selector box should come up.

33. In the Legend Item Selector box, click the Properties button. The Legend Item box should come up. Under the General tab, and under Appearance you should find "Show Layer Name" and "Show Heading" click on the boxes next to each of these to turn them off. Then, click OK 3 times to return to your Layout View.

34. On the File menu, save your map to the N:\ drive for future reference.

35. Print it by hitting the printer, 4th icon from the left on the toolbar just above the main window.

36. DONE!!

Copyright, Lawrence McGlinn, 2003