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ArcGIS Explorer allows you to create maps by incorporating geographic information from a variety of sources and add your own notes on top of basemap information. In addition to using ArcGIS Explorer to explore and ask questions about the geography in the map, you can also use the application to communicate important information to others about that geography by using your map as a presentation.

A map contains content that includes the basemaps, layers, notes, views, folders, etc that make up the geography you see displayed in the application. A map can also contain a collection of slides that you can step through as a presentation to review important information for yourself, or to present to others. To view a map’s presentation, open the map in ArcGIS Explorer and on the Home tab click the Start Presentation button:

Starting a presentation displays the map in full-screen mode and displays the first slide. You can setup slides in a presentation to either play automatically or manually. For a manual setup the presenter advances through the slide deck using the spacebar or by using the next/previous slide buttons which appear on a small toolbar at the top of the display. You can also click the Slides Window button to see a list of the slides in a window and quickly jump to any slide in the presentation.

When you are on a slide, you are free to interact with the map normally, including navigating, closing any open popups, clicking on features to open additional popups and so on. Your position in the presentation will be maintained and when you go to the next slide, the presentation will continue as expected.

You can end the presentation at any time by clicking the End Presentation button on the toolbar, or by pressing the Esc key. The presentation will end automatically when you advance past the last slide.

##### Creating a presentation

Any ArcGIS Explorer map can be a presentation. To create a presentation, you capture slides which record the state of the map at the time the slide is captured. To create and manage the slides in the presentation, click the Edit Presentation button on the Home tab.

Clicking the Edit Presentation button opens the Slides window and displays the Presentation tab in the Ribbon. The Slides Window lists the slides you have captured for the map’s presentation in the order they are presented. Each slide is numbered and displayed with a thumbnail of what it looks like. You can increase or decrease the size of the thumbnail using the slider at the bottom of the window. Initially this window doesn’t contain any slides – as you use the controls on the tab to capture slides, they are listed in the window.

You can click any slide to display it in the map. You can drag the slides in the list to sort them. You can also select multiple slides by dragging a box around then or holding the ctrl or shift key while clicking on slides.

The Presentation tab in the Ribbon includes all of the controls necessary to manage the various aspects of the map’s presentation. It includes controls for starting the presentation, setting options, capturing and managing slides.

Follow a step-by-step, typical slide creation and editing workflow

##### Capturing slides

A slide represents the state of the map that you want to restore during a presentation. You capture a slide by setting up the map as you want it displayed, then click the Capture New Slide button. When you capture a slide, you capture the following:

- The current camera position/extent
- The current basemap
- The visibility of the various map items (what’s on, what’s off)
- Any popup windows that are opened and their size and position

As you go from slide to slide in the presentation, some or all of these aspects of the map can change. For example when transitioning from one slide to another, the map can zoom to another camera view, turn a layer off, turn an image on and display a popup window of information.

Capturing a slide does not include:

- Individual properties of a mapitem (symbol, transparency, etc)
- Application level settings (navigator position, vertical exaggeration, stars, fog, etc.)

In addition to these properties a slide can also have a title which is text that’s displayed at the top of the map when the slide is active.

Once a slide is captured, you can use the other controls in the Slides and Timing group to:

- Delete the slide from the map
- Hide the slide: this keeps the slide in the map, but skips it during the presentation
- Re-capture the slide: this replaces the selected slide with the current state of the map
- Set the transition type: determine how ArcGIS Explorer will navigate to the selected slide.
- Control the transition time: set the amount of time in seconds that it will take to transition to the selected slide.
- Set whether the slide advances manually or automatically. Manual slides require user input to advance, while automatic slides advance based on the slide duration, set in seconds.

##### Reviewing Slides

You can review the slides in the presentation without going into presentation mode using the buttons on the Review Slides group to step through the slides in the presentation.

##### Setting a slide title

After you capture a slide you can include some title text to display at the top of the map window to describe or emphasize the importance of the slide. The Slide Title group on the Presentation tab contains the controls you’ll use to define and configure the title for the selected slide.

To specify the text to use for the slide’s title, click the Edit Text button and type the text you want to display.

You can use the Text Position gallery to place the text at the upper left of the display and left justified, the center of the display and center justified or the upper-right of the display and right justified.

You can change the color of the title’s text and the title’s background so it’s easier to read on the display. To change the color, use the Text Color and Background Color controls to choose the desired color.

In addition to the text color you can also choose a font, size and emphasis using the font controls on the group.

Learn more about the slide title text formatting options

##### Specify advance mode and timings

You can choose whether the slides in a presentation are advanced manually by a user or will advance automatically based on timings for each slide.
Learn more about setting the advance mode and slide timings

##### Presentation Options

There are some options you can set for displaying the presentation. To set the options, click the Options button on the Start Presentation group. This displays the options dialog.
Learn more about the presentation options