July 2015

Creating an Esri Story Map

In todays workshop, we will create a Map Tour Story Map using data

and pictures from the North Burial Ground in Providence, RI.

Task 1: Upload photos to a photo-sharing site (i.e., Flickr, Picasa Web/Google+, Facebook).

-Pictures for your Story Map must be hosted on a photo-sharing site (privacy settings set to public).

-To save time, sample pictures for this Story Map tutorial have already been uploaded to a Flickr account.

(User name: seth.dixon4 ; album: RI Icons)

Link to Album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132729002@N04/sets/72157655518769362

Task 2: Create a new web map with the appropriate basemap and data to support your story.

1. Be sure you are signed in then, then make a map; choose an appropriate basemap that will support, not overpower, your story.

2. You can add data (map layers) to your web map in a variety of ways. One of the easiest ways is to search for data hosted within ArcGIS Online. For this Story Map, select Add and Search for layers. Type Rhode Island Municipal Boundaries in the Find bar. You will see a few options for map layers that have already been created and are hosted within ArcGIS Online. Add the layer to your web map. Also search RIGIS to see a great RI-centric data source. Click Done adding layers.

3. Save your web map. Create an appropriate title and add a few tags. These tags will help you and other users search for specific content in the future. You may leave the Summary blank for now, but it is good practice to create thorough metadata about each of your products.

This web map will now be located under My Content.

Task 3: Share your web map as a Map Tour Story Map.

1. After you have saved your map, select Share. Check the box next to Everyone (public). This indicates that your Web Map will be shared publicly.

2. Select Make a Web Application. Choose publish under the Map Tour template.

3. Give your Map Tour Story Map an appropriate title, related tags, and a short summary. This information can be the same as that provided for the web map, but you may want to indicate in the title that this is a Story Map.

4. Select Save and Publish. To start building your Map Tour Story Map, choose go to the item now.

5. On the following screen, select the large map thumbnail to go to the web application (Story Map). You could also select Open and View Application.

Task 4: Use the interactive builder mode to integrate photos, videos and text to your map.

1. This Story Map needs to know where to go to find your photos. When prompted with the question Where are your images or videos?, select the icon for Flickr in the top left-hand corner.

2. On the next screen, type seth.dixon4 as the Flickr user name and click Look up. This will search for a specific Flickr account and show you the available photo sets (those that have been shared publicly). Under Select a Photo Set, choose the set called RI Icons. Now click Import.

3. You now need to tell the Story Map where to locate the photos on the map. Click once on the first picture, and then click once on the imagery basemap in the general area where the picture should be (somewhere close by, no need for precision at this point). A small, numbered red pinpoint should appear on the map. Do not worry about the specific location; you can adjust the location of each pinpoint in the next steps.

Select and locate all pictures. Once you have done this, click Import. This will import the selected photos from Flickr to your Story Map.

4. Your screen should now look like a Story Map. Lets turn this into a real story by relocating each pinpoint to an appropriate location in the cemetery and adding titles and captions to each picture.

To adjust the location of your points, click once on the numbered red flag and then drag it to a new location. You may also change the color of each point.

Click the leftmost pencil icon at the bottom of the picture. This will let you rename the title of the picture. Similarly, the pencil icon to the right will let you type a caption for that picture. You can use the information here for titles and descriptions.

5. SINGLE VIDEO: Now lets add a video to our Story Map. Click on the add button above the picture carousel. Select VIDEO and make sure that Youtube is selected. With Video selected, add the following URL into the blank box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1m1t2jNUZ8

This is the URL of the image thumbnail:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/y1m1t2jNUZ8/mqdefault.jpg

Other selected videos to choose from: http://www.scoop.it/t/rigea/?tag=local+video

There are three tabs at the top. Add some information, and then locate the picture before clicking Apply.

6. BATCH VIDEOS: Adding more Videos: Select Import then YouTube. Type in Stratfor the click Next. None of the 81 videos in this YouTube channel are geolocated, so youll have to click on a video that you want to add, and then locate it on the map (hint: zoom out to find the right location). Repeat that for all the videos you choose to add, then select import.

7. (OPTIONAL) If you have time leftover, visit the Settings tab at the top of the page to customize your Story Map. You can change things like the layout, colors, and zoom level (how far the map zooms in for each point in your story). When you are satisfied with your changes, click Apply.

MORE OPITIONAL CUSTOMIZING: To add a hyperlink to the title of your picture or your caption, you can add the text below after replacing the two bolded portions:

Read more here.

For the hyperlink to start on a new line:

Read more here.

8. Save and Share your Story Map.

Esri Story Map Workshop

Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance