Get started with ArcGIS StoryMaps

Sharing your results or discoveries is essential for demonstrating the value of any research effort. But communication can be tricky, especially if you're trying to connect with people who aren't experts in your area of study. The key to success is keeping your audience interested from start to finish. In this tutorial, you'll use ArcGIS StoryMaps to recreate part of story describing a National Geographic expedition. You'll create the story as if you're part of the expedition team. We've assembled maps, multimedia, and text to help you get started. Once you complete this tutorial, you will be ready to start using ArcGIS StoryMaps with your own content.

This tutorial was last tested on December 2, 2025.

View final result

Requirements

• User, Publisher, or Administrator role in an ArcGIS organization (see options for software access)

Share the story of an expedition

Study an example

One of the most effective ways to learn is to learn from good examples. In this tutorial, you'll review an example story about three National Geographic explorers who visited Guatemala to learn more about the coexistence of volcanoes and communities. The example story contains a mix of text and media that is designed to keep readers' attention throughout the entire story. It introduces scientific inquiry without being too technical, and it uses maps and other geographic elements to help readers step into the shoes of the explorers. Once you are familiar with the story, you'll create your own version of it.

1. Read through In the Shadow of a Volcano, a tale of three National Geographic explorers on an expedition in Guatemala.

   Tip:

   Having a clear narrative arc is key to a good story. You may have noticed the example story is told chronologically—it has a natural beginning, middle, and end. It starts with the explorers arriving in Quetzaltenango. Ready to make a difference, the explorers head up the volcano to test their gear. It finishes with the photo exhibit created for community members, bringing the narrative back to the stated mission of the explorers and providing a satisfying sense of closure to its audience.

Gather visual content

Now that you've seen the example story you want to recreate, you'll start gathering material. It's helpful to have the story written and multimedia elements organized before you start putting the content into the ArcGIS StoryMaps builder.

1. Download the Get started with ArcGIS StoryMaps content .zip file and unzip it to a location you can easily access.

   This folder includes visual assets you can add to your story as well as a draft of the story you can use to fill in content.

2. Identify content that can speak to your journey's beginning, middle and end.

Create an outline

With your content inventory complete, you'll start thinking about how you might weave all these pieces together into an outline. Outlines are the roadmap for your story. They can take a variety of formats, from a simple bulleted list to an entire visual storyboard, a slide deck, or even a collection of index cards you shuffle around on your desk. Learn more from the blog post Planning and outlining your story: How to set yourself up for success.

Tip:

If you're working on this story with a group, now is a good time to review your story outline with collaborators or colleagues, so you can make any big structural changes before you start assembling your story. There are countless ways to tell a story; your audience and key message are integral to finding the structure that's best for you. You'd take a very different approach to storytelling with an audience of middle school students versus scientists.

Build your story in ArcGIS StoryMaps

Now that you have the story text and media, and an outline, you'll start building the story using content blocks in ArcGIS StoryMaps. Each paragraph, map, image, and media type is added as a separate block from the block palette. Using the story you reviewed earlier as an example, you'll add blocks to build your own version.

1. Open the ArcGIS StoryMaps builder and sign in to ArcGIS Online.

   Note:

   If you are signing in using your Enterprise account, you must access ArcGIS StoryMaps from the app launcher.

   

   The app is also accessible in ArcGIS Online via the app launcher.

2. Click Create and choose Story.

   

   A blank story template appears.

   

3. For Story title, type or paste: In the Shadow of a Volcano. For Start with a short introduction or subtitle, type or paste: Around the world, volcanoes threaten nearly half a billion people. Scientists are working to better forecast when eruptions will occur.

   The draft is saved with the title.

   

4. Click the Add content block button.

   

   The block palette appears. It contains options for adding content.

5. Under Basic, click Text.

   

6. Type or paste:

   There's nothing quite like the thrill of going into the field for research.

   It's a kind of nervous excitement that keeps building-through grant writing, planning, meticulously taking stock of the necessary gear, packing, hustling through the airport, watching the ground race by below the plane.

   Then, finally, the arrival. I'm here-I've made it to Quetzaltenango with my expedition team, and the Santa Maria volcano is waiting. Around the world, volcanoes threaten nearly half a billion people. I'm working to better forecast when eruptions will occur and support communities that live with this risk.

   Next, you'll style some of the text to help it stand out.

7. Highlight the first sentence. Click Paragraph and choose Heading 1.

   

   The sentence style updates. Changing the text size in your story will get your reader's attention.

   

Working with maps

What sets ArcGIS StoryMaps apart from other web-based authoring tools is the ability to integrate maps with other multimedia elements (words, images, videos, audio, and embedded content). Maps guide readers from place to place, they show change over time, and reveal patterns and relationships. Maps add dimensions to stories that are difficult or impossible to achieve with other media.

This story takes place in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. You'll add a locator map using an express map to help the reader picture where this is.

1. Scroll to the bottom of your text, click the Add content block button and choose Map.

   

2. In the Add a map window, click Create express map.

   A map of the world appears. You'll locate the site of the expedition, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

3. In the search bar, type Quetzaltenango, GTM and press Enter.

   The map zooms to Quetzaltenango.

4. On the pop-up, click Add to map.

   

   A pin is added to the map. In the Layers side panel, you can add an image and descriptive text to this point. This information will be displayed in a small pop-up window if a reader clicks it for more context. You can also change the basemap. Explore these options on your own and experiment with changing the defaults.

   The purpose of the map is to show readers where Quetzaltenango is in Central America. You'll change the map extents to provide more context.

5. Zoom out on the map until you can see the entirety of Guatemala and some of its neighboring countries.
6. Click the Options side panel. For Overview map, slide the toggle to turn it on.

   

   A globe appears indicating the extent of your map.

7. Click Save.

   The express map is added to the story.

   Point to the map to show a toolbar. You can use the buttons to adjust the size of the block and make edits to the map at any time. You won't make any changes at this time.

   

   You've added a map to your story. Next, you'll add an image to your story.

Working with media

Media helps bring a story to life. Images, videos, and other media are important because they break up a long narrative and keep your readers engaged. You'll add some media to the story showing the expedition team preparing to go into the field.

1. Below your map, click the Add content block button, and choose Image.
2. In the Add an image window, click Browse your files and locate the arrival.jpg image from the tutorial images. Click Add.
3. Point to the image. In the toolbar, click Medium.

   

   Tip:

   Depending on the width of the image you upload, larger sizes may not be available, ensuring that your content is never stretched beyond its maximum width. Full-width media, for example, must be at least 1920 pixels wide.

4. Point to the image again. On the toolbar, click the Options button.

   

   The Image options window appears.

   In this window, you'll add attribution and alternative text to the image. Attribution means giving credit for the work of others. Alternative text describes the image so that anyone consuming your story with a screen reader (typically used by the visually impaired) can still experience your work in its entirety. Read more about accessible storytelling in the story Getting started with accessible storytelling.

5. In the Image options window, in the Display tab, for Attribution, type or paste: Photo: Gabby Salazar.
6. Click the Accessibility tab. For Alternative text, type or paste: A member of the expedition team prepares camera equipment on an outside on the ground. The equipment includes electronic wires for a field photography setup.

   

7. Click Save.

   The image is added. Next, you'll add a caption.

8. Below the image, click Add a caption (optional). Type or paste: Dr. Stephanie Grocke sets up and tests photogrammetry equipment before the expedition up Santa María Volcano.

   Next, you'll add an immersive block with a 3D scene to communicate the science of where volcanoes form.

Working with immersive blocks

Immersive blocks are a combination of media and text that fill the display, creating an engaging reading experience. As readers navigate the story, these maps are presented one after another, often accompanied by relevant written narration. We call this map choreography. A sidecar is an immersive block that combines a media focused panel with a narrative panel that can float atop the media or be docked on the side. Together, these two panels constitute a slide. You'll use a sidecar block to educate readers on where volcanoes form and which volcanoes the researchers are studying.

Note:

Learn more about map cartography in the blog post Choreograph your maps with ArcGIS StoryMaps.

First, you’ll add text to indicate the new section of the story.

1. Add a text block and type or paste: Where do volcanoes form?

   Try changing the style to make the text stand out.

2. Below the text, click the Add content block button. Under Immersive, choose Sidecar.

   Next, you'll choose the placement of the text and media in the sidecar.

3. In the Select a sidecar layout window, click Docked and click Save.

   

   A sidecar with one slide is added to the story.

4. In the narrative panel, add a text block and type or paste: Guatemala is located at the intersection of three plates (Cocos, Caribbean, and North America). The collision of the Cocos Plate with the Caribbean Plate creates a line of volcanoes in Guatemala.

   

   Next, you'll add a 3D scene from ArcGIS Online, showing volcanoes and tectonic places around the world. This scene was authored in ArcGIS Online.

   Note:

   To learn how to create a web map or web scene, explore the tutorial Get started with ArcGIS Online or the tutorial series Get started with Scene Viewer.

5. In the sidecar media panel, click Add, and choose Map.

   The Add a map window appears. You'll search for the scene in ArcGIS Online by using its title and owner information.

6. Under Filters, for View items in, click Public Content. In the search bar type or paste: Volcano Expedition owner: Esri_Tutorials.

   One web scene appears in the search results.

   

7. Click Volcano Expedition.

   The Adjust map appearance window appears.

8. Click the Slides tab.

   

   This scene has preconfigured map slides to make it easy to use different maps in your story.

9. Click Slide 1 and click Save.

   The map is added to first sidecar slide.

   

   Next, you'll duplicate the first sidecar slide to create the second slide.

10. In the slide panel, for Slide 1, click the Slide options button and choose Duplicate slide.

    

    Slide 2, a copy of Slide 1, is added to the sidecar block.

11. For Slide 2, in the narrative pane, delete the duplicated text and type or paste:

    Santa María is best known for its massive eruption in 1902; the event was devastating, decimating the surrounding area and killing thousands. It ended up being one of the largest eruptions of the century.

    Since then, the magma below the surface has started to emerge in lava flows at the base of the volcano.

    Over time, these flows have accumulated into the four different lava domes present today: Caliente, El Brujo, El Monje, and La Mitad.

12. In the media pane, on the map, click the Edit button.

    

13. In the Adjust map appearance window, click the Slides tab. Click Slide 2 and click Save.

    Slide 2 is complete.

14. Duplicate Slide 2.

    Slide 3 is added to the story.

15. For Slide 3, delete the duplicated text and type or paste:

    Lava domes, like the volcanic complex Santiaguito, can erupt for decades, generating myriad hazards to life and property. More than 1.9 million people live within 10km of lava domes that have been active since 1900. For this reason, it is important to study active volcanic systems. Our team will summit the Santa Maria Volcano to study Santiaguito’s volcanic activity. The domes have been erupting on a regular basis over the past 100 years. But the near-constant activity makes the complex an ideal place for research.

16. On the map, click the Edit button. Click the Slides tab. Click Slide 3 and click Save.

    You’ve completed your sidecar immersive block. Scroll through the sidecar in the builder to see the text and maps change from one slide to the next.

    This concludes the step-by-step content portion of the tutorial. Continue adding text and images from the tutorial folder on your own if you wish. Refer to the example story for guidance.

    Before you publish your story, you’ll review it.

Review the story

Reviewing your story before publishing it is important because you want to make sure what you're sending out to the public is accurate and represents the best telling of your story. In addition to proofreading and editing your own story, this is a good point to ask others for feedback on the story.

1. On the header, click Design.

   The Design pane appears with options to choose the cover layout and theme that best suit your narrative. Finalizing your story's design—its overall look and feel—is just as important as choosing the right content for your story.

   Note:

   You want to ensure that the story's visual cues (its colors, typography, map symbology, and so on) match the tone of the narrative. These cues are what form a reader's first impression of a story's tone: dark, muted colors paired with formal fonts will signal a more serious story lies ahead, for example. When your design aesthetic and your content tone don't align, it makes for a jarring reading experience. To learn more about choosing a theme, see the tutorial Customize a theme for impactful stories.

2. Optional: Add an image for the cover of your story from your tutorial folder.
3. Optional: In the design pane, select a different theme.
4. Close the Design pane when you are finished.
5. In the header, click Preview. Click Yes, continue.

   The builder switches to preview mode, showing the story as a reader would. It's best to do a full review after you've taken a break from story crafting; you'd be surprised what you pick up on when you review the story a second time. Remember, storytelling is an iterative process. It's okay to change your mind about decisions you made when outlining your story. When in doubt, show someone else your draft and ask for their reaction.

6. When you are done reviewing, click the Close preview button to return to the builder.

   

Publish and share

Finally, you'll publish your finished story and share it with others. Once it's published, you can choose to share the story with only people in your organization, or you can share it publicly.

1. In the header, click Publish.
2. In the Publish options window, under Share, for Set sharing level, choose Organization.

   Tip:

   Sharing the story publicly allows anyone to search and view it. Choosing Organization keeps viewership limited to your ArcGIS organization. You can update these sharing settings later through the More Options menu in the builder header.

   

3. Click Publish.

   The story is published and available to others. You are presented with options to share, view or edit it. If you click Edit story, you return to the builder. There, on the ribbon, the Draft badge is replaced with a Published badge.

   After publishing, you can continue to make edits or updates without affecting the shared story. When you make a change, the Published badge in the builder header changes to Unpublished changes. This signals that you've made some revisions to your story, but they have yet to be pushed to the published version.

In this tutorial you completed key steps to create an impactful story. You identified the narrative, gathered content, and created an outline. Then, you used text, map, image, and sidecar blocks in ArcGIS StoryMaps to bring the story to life.

Now that you know the basic block elements of ArcGIS StoryMaps, you can use them to build any kind of story you want. Try telling the story of your latest vacation or adventure. When you're happy with your story, you can share it on social media, send it to everyone on your email list, embed it on your website, or share it any other way you want.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Photos by Gabby Salazar and Ross Donihue.
• Volcano diagram by Ross Donihue.
• Web scene and its data by Ross Donihue.