Referencing styles in a map document

Map documents reference one or more styles. Referencing a style means that its contents will appear in the Symbol Selector dialog box when you are choosing symbols. You can also choose to limit your symbol searches to just those styles that are currently referenced.

Learn more about searching for symbols

By default, your personal style and ESRI.style are referenced in a map, but you can change this set by referencing other Esri-provided styles or custom styles instead. You manage this from the Style References dialog box which is accessible from both the Symbol Selector dialog box and from the Style Manager dialog box. The Style References dialog box lists all the styles that are in the style path location.

Tip:

Use the check boxes to choose which styles to reference for the current map document. Press CTRL and click to quickly check all styles on or off. You can browse to a custom style to reference it, or you can create a new style from this dialog box as well.

Caution:

Unreferencing the ESRI style file will remove the predefined colors from the color palette and the standard symbols shown in symbol selectors throughout the application.

Dive-in:

By default, the style path is set to <install drive>:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop<release number>\Styles, which is the location where the styles that are installed with ArcGIS are stored. You can add your own styles to this location to make them easily available for searching, or you can reference them instead.

Alternatively, if you have a number of styles that you commonly use, you may want to point the Symbol Selector dialog box and symbol searching to a different style path instead. This will also change the list of styles that you see in the Style References dialog box. Manage the style path setting with the ArcMap Advanced Settings utility located at <install drive>:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop<release number>\Utilities.

Setting a default list of referenced styles

If you'd like to define exactly which styles are referenced when you open a new map document, choose those styles in the Style References dialog box, then click the Set As Default List button. New map documents will open automatically referencing this set of styles.

1. Click the Style References button on the Symbol Selector dialog box or the Styles button on the Style Manager dialog box.
The Style References dialog box opens, listing all styles in the style path.
2. Check the additional styles you want to use and uncheck those that you do not want to reference.
3. Optionally, click the Add Style to List button to reference styles from other locations.
4. Click OK.