How a Style Is Built
Ortelius excels at making simple and expert styles. Styles are built by combining various style components. For example, to build a cased line with a center dash, three strokes of varying widths are defined and stacked. The Style Inspector invites virtually unlimited style combinations. In this example, we combine a red solid line (6-pt width), yellow solid line (4-pt width), and grey dashed line (2-pt width).
In this example, the 6-pt red stroke is defined first, then the yellow, then the dashed grey. Drag to rearrange the stacking order of style components.
Ad-Hoc and Saved Styles
A new style can used as an ad-hoc style or can be saved to the Symbols Library for future use and sharing. Ad hoc styles are those styles that are created and used, but not saved to the Library for future use. Ad hoc styles are perfect for when you need to style an object for limited use and don’t expect to use it again later. Ad hoc styles also work well when creating graphic objects, such as symbols. When you want access to the style for future mapping, save it to the Symbols Library.
Simple and Expert Panes
The Simple pane of the Style Inspector lets you very quickly edit the stroke and fill of simple ad-hoc styles. You can also create new styles and clone existing styles from the Simple pane. Use the expert pane for full control of style components.
Editing Existing Styles
Styles in the Library are “master styles” and will be displayed as “locked” to prevent unintended changes. When you edit a master style, your changes will be applied to all instances where that style has been used. This can be handy for making universal changes, but dangerous if you are really wanting to create a new style.
New Style from Clone
Creating a new style from a clone of the existing style (rather than changing the existing style) is a quick and easy way to create new styles. It is even easier when you pick a style that is close to (or approximates) the style you intend to create. For example, clone a road style that is already cased or dashed and labeled if you want to create a similar road style. You can now edit the style features to match your own vision.
First, with the object selected from which you will clone its style, select “Clone Style” from the Action pop-up menu in the Style Inspector.
Now the style will appear unlocked (and unnamed) and it is safe to edit the clone. The selected object will have the newly cloned style applied and will show changes ‘live’ as you edit them, so you can see directly how the new style will look when used.
