How to show map objects in different colors
If one map layer holds several kinds of things, you can show each kind in its own color, or hide some of them entirely. For example, many organizations want a dashboard map with fee properties in one color and easements in another. Or you might want each status of an issue in a different color, with resolved issues not shown at all.
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Changing styles within an individual record map, saved view, or dashboard widget
Changing default styles in Settings
Changing styles in a report template
Changing styles within an individual record map, saved view, or dashboard widget
The following instructions apply when a user wants to style the map for a single record, or to change map styles in map views and dashboard widgets. If you want to change the default map styles for all records, jump to the section on Settings.
Prerequisites
You must have sufficient permissions to Edit this type of record.
Opening a layer's style menu
- Click the Layers button at the top of the map.
- Next to each layer's name is a small swatch showing how the layer is drawn (a point, a line, or an area). Click the swatch to open the layer's style menu.
Changes save as you make them. There's no OK button; click outside the menu or the × to close it.
Styles you set on a record, project, view, or dashboard widget map are seen by everyone who opens that same map. To go back to your account's default style, open the layer's … menu and choose Reset Style to Default.
Giving every feature the same style
With Type set to Same for all, every feature in the layer is drawn the same way.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Color | Click a color to open the picker. Choose a preset, or pick any color from the full color chooser, then click Done. Areas have separate Outline and Fill colors, and either can be set to None. |
| Opacity | Drag the slider to make the color more or less see-through. Sliding it to zero makes the color invisible but keeps it, so sliding back up brings the same color back. |
| Style | For lines and area outlines, choose solid, dashed, or dotted. |
| Size or Width | Size applies to points. Width applies to lines and outlines. |
Styling by a field
To color features by one of their fields, set Type to By field, then:
- Choose the field. The list shows the fields this layer can be styled by. On widget, view, and report maps you can style by almost any field. On record and work item maps the choices are more limited.
- For a date field, choose how to group the dates: Day, Month, Year, or Exact. Grouping is what makes date styling useful. Dates are otherwise unique down to the second, so almost every feature would get its own color. But grouping by month, for example, gives all site visits from the same month the same color.
- Choose which values get their own color (see "All or Selected" below).
- Choose a color palette under Colors. The first palettes (Distinct, Soft, and Bright) are made of clearly different colors and suit categories such as statuses or types. The rest are ramps that shade gradually from one color to another (such as Greens or Blue → Red) and are best suited for dates and numbers.
- For points, choose a Size. For lines and areas, choose a Style and Width. For any geography type, set the Opacity. These choices apply to the whole layer.
Values: All or Selected
| Choose | What happens |
|---|---|
| All (the default) | Each value on the map gets its own color from the palette, most common values first. If new values show up on the map later, an Add new values button appears next to the Values heading. Click it to give them colors too. |
| Selected | You choose which values get their own color. Pick them from the list, or type in the search box to find one in a long list. Click Done when you've picked them. Every other feature is drawn in the All Others style. |
Up to 24 values can have their own style. When a field has more than 24 values, the most common ones get their own colors and the rest use the All Others style. With more colors than that, they become too hard to tell apart on a map.
Changing the colors of individual values
The bottom of the style menu lists each value with its color, followed by All Others.
| To… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Change one value's style | Click the value. A second menu opens beside it with that value's color, opacity, and size or width. |
| Put a value back to its palette color | Click the ↺ (reset) next to it. |
| Reorder values | Drag a value up or down the list, or select it and press Alt + ↑ or ↓. Reordering doesn't change any colors. |
| Remove a value | Click its trash icon. Its features go back to the All Others style. |
TIP: Colors you change stay put. A value whose color you changed by hand keeps it, even when you switch palettes.
The icons at the right end of the Values heading act on the whole list:
| Icon | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sort | Puts the values back in their natural order (alphabetical, by date, or by number). It only appears when the list is out of order, and it keeps every value's color. |
| Apply palette | Recolors the values from the palette in the order they're listed, skipping any color you changed by hand. After dragging values into a new order, use it to make the colors follow that order. |
| Reset all to palette | Puts every value you recolored by hand back to its palette color. |
Showing and hiding values
When a layer is styled by a field, its values are listed under it in the layers panel, each with a checkbox. Uncheck a value to hide those features from the map. While only some of a layer's values are showing, the layer's own checkbox shows a dash. Check it again to show every value.
Click a value's name in that list to open the style menu straight to that value.
TIP: Uncheck a layer to hide it from the map entirely.
Changes to a record's map also show in Landscape Mobile 4. Some options apply on the web only, including hiding individual values and grouping dates.
Changing default styles in Settings
To change how map features look by default across your whole portfolio, use Map Layer Styles in Settings. The styles set here are where every map starts. Other users can still restyle individual maps as described above.
Prerequisites:
You must be an Administrator to access Settings.
Instructions:
- Go to Settings > Map Layers > Map Layer Styles.
- Click a layer's swatch to open the same style menu described above.
- Set the style.
Settings has no map to read values from, so when you style by a field here, the values list offers the field's own options (for example, every status your account uses).
Styling Custom Map Layers
A Custom Layer that comes from a map service can be styled by any of the service's own fields, not only the ones shown in its popup.
Read more about setting up Custom Layers HERE.
Prerequisites:
You must be an Administrator to access Settings.
Instructions:
- Go to Settings > Map Layers > Custom Map Layers.
- Open the layer and click its style swatch.
- Choose a field. Landscape asks the service which values the field holds, so you can pick from the real values instead of typing them. If the service defines readable names for coded values, the list shows the names (for example, "Federal" instead of "FED").
The style you set in Settings is the layer's default. A user can also restyle it on any individual map.
Changing styles in a report template
To make a report always draw a layer in particular colors, however that layer is styled on each record, set the style in the report template's map block. You can also hide certain points there.
Prerequisites:
You must be an Administrator to access Settings.
Instructions:
- Go to Settings > Reports > Report Templates and click a template name to open it.
- Click into the map block and click the layer's swatch.
- Change Style from Automatic to Override. Automatic uses each record's own styles, or your account's defaults.
- Set the style as described above.
Autonomous date field styling (report templates only)
Normally, you build up your style list by selecting one value at a time, as described above. In a report template where layers are styled by a date field, you can use autonomous styling: Landscape will generate the colors directly from the data in the report, instead of you pre-defining each one.
To use autonomous styling, leave the values field blank in the popup that appears after you've selected to style by that date field, and check the box to Give each other value in the report its own color. Autonomous styling will color up to the 12 most common values; anything beyond that — along with blank values — falls into "All Others."
This is the companion feature to showing all site visits on a single combined map: once a report map is aggregating many records onto one map, autonomous styling by date is the easiest way to make each one visually distinguishable without manually configuring a color for every visit.