ArcGIS StoryMaps

Once you've created your StoryMaps and or have published one, managing your stories is straightforward through the intuitive dashboard interface. Let's get back to the StoryMaps homepage, by clicking on the StoryMaps icon, or accessing the link (https://storymaps.arcgis.com)

On this page, you'll find the necessary ways to organize and access your content through the various tabs.

At the top of your Stories page, you'll find four key sections:

• My Content: Access all your created stories and drafts
• My Favorites: Quick access to your starred stories
• My Groups: View stories shared within your groups
• My Organization: Browse content across your organization

Located in the Quick Links sidebar, the ArcGIS recycle bin serves as a safety net for:

• Recovering deleted stories
• Managing removed content within the recovery period of 14 days, or a maximum of 60 items.

To edit a StoryMaps or to modify one:

• Locate the three-dots (⋮) next to the story thumbnail
• Click on it to reveal a quick options menu
• Choose "Edit" to re-enter the StoryMaps

One you are back in the edit mode of a StoryMaps, click on the three-dots (⋮) on the top right. Through this story options menu, you can:

• Story settings:

Accessing Analytics and change how readers view the story

• Sharing settings:

Control access levels (private, organization, or public)

• Duplicate options:

Create story copies for variations
Save as templates for future use

• Version control:

Discard unpublished changes
"Unpublish" - Bring StoryMaps back to private view only
Delete - Removing the StoryMaps as a whole

Moreover, you can also print your StoryMaps out as a PDF in order to share it universally.

• Go back to the StoryMaps you want to print out.
• Open the Options menu
• Choose "Print preview"
• Here, you will be presented with a preview of what your PDF print would look like. If nothing is out of the ordinary, click on "Print"

While printing out as a PDF maintains the pictures and text, the interactive elements and certain media such as videos or maps would not load.

In prevention of cases of file corruption, system error, or accidentally permanently deleted the files, we must fully back up the StoryMaps. In order to do so, you must follow the steps below under the "Backing up" section.

Unlike conventional methods, to back up or restore a StoryMaps, you would need to go through an indirect method of:

1. Have the necessary files that created that specific StoryMaps
2. Create a new empty StoryMaps
3. Delete the files of that new StoryMaps
4. Upload the files of the StoryMaps you would want to restore

Below is a graph of the process mentioned.

CAUTION: This part requires working with JSON files. Any edits to the code could corrupt it, proceed with caution.

To fully back up the StoryMaps for future uses, we need to access ArcGIS Assistant, which is also part of the ArcGIS and Esri Ecosystem.

(https://assistant.esri-ps.com/)

After logging in with the same steps as StoryMaps, you will be introduced to a homepage with all your uploaded content on ArcGIS Online. Now, find the StoryMaps you want to back up by sorting by "Title" and "Type".

After successfully locating your StoryMaps, press the "{ }" (brackets symbols).

After which, you will be redirected to the JSON Editor page for your StoryMaps. Here lies every lines of code that goes into creating your StoryMaps, as such, this is also be one of the files you'll need to download and save should you want to back up.

To do so, proceed to the "Resources" tab on the green bar. This is where all your media and maps are saved on ArcGIS to be used and displayed on the StoryMaps. You'll need these as well as the JSON aforementioned in order to fully recreate your StoryMaps.

Finally, click "Download all", and you will be able to download the compressed folder of the resources. Save it somewhere safe on your hard drive or cloud.

Finally, it's time for us to recreate the original StoryMaps.

As per the graph, our next steps are:

1. Go back to the StoryMaps homepage (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/)
2. Create a new StoryMaps from scratch
3. Rename it to your preferences
4. Return to ArcGIS Assistant (https://assistant.esri-ps.com/)
5. Edit the new StoryMaps you created by pressing the brackets "{ }"
6. Click on Resources
7. Individually delete ALL of the current files of the new StoryMaps by clicking on the three dots "..." on the right
8. Individually upload ALL of the files of the original StoryMaps that were downloaded