Label features in Data Driven Pages, so that only features in area of interest are labeled

Summary

When creating Data Driven Pages it may be preferable to only label the features that appear in the area of interest for each page, while still preserving the features outside of the extent of the grid index. The following workflow creates a map book that contains labeled features within each area of interest from the index layer.

Procedure

Example of map with index features labelled

1. After enabling Data Driven Pages and selecting the grid index layer, identify which layer is to be labeled in the index layer, but not outside of it. Right-click the layer and copy it. Right-click on the data frame and paste the new layer to the table of contents. Rename the layer 'LayerName_Labels' to differentiate it.
   

   Table of contents

   
   
   
2. Right-click the new layer, select Properties, and go to the Label tab. Label the layer as desired and click Apply > OK.
3. Right-click the data frame and open the Properties dialog box. Select the Data Frame tab. Under Clip Options, click the first drop-down and choose 'Clip to current data driven page extent'.
   

   Data Frame Properties dialog box

   
   
   
4. Under the same Data Frame tab of the Data Frame Properties dialog, click the 'Exclude layers' button. Check all layers that are to be drawn outside of the index layer. Do not check the layer named 'Labels' that was created in Step 1. Click Apply > OK to close the dialog.
   

   Select excluded layers

   
   
   
5. When viewing the map, the layer that is excluded should extend beyond the index layer and not be labeled. The layer created with labels should only be drawn within the index layer with labels applied.