Description text is truncated in ArcGIS StoryMaps map tours

Description

The text in the Description element of a map tour appears truncated in ArcGIS StoryMaps, resulting in incomplete information being displayed for the tour location, as shown below.

Cause

The map tour is created using a feature layer hosted in ArcGIS Online. The Description element pulls content from the text field mapped to the description attribute. By default, text fields in hosted feature layers are created with a maximum length of 256 characters. As a result, text exceeding this limit is truncated and not displayed fully in the map tour. The field length is fixed and cannot be modified after creation.

Solution or Workaround

Create a longer text field in ArcGIS Online for the description

1. In ArcGIS Online, create a new field with a longer text length for the description of the tour location. Refer to ArcGIS Online: Add a field for instructions. For Step 2, open the item page of the hosted feature layer associated with the map tour; and for Step 5(f), specify the preferred maximum text length.
2. Locate the new field column, double-click the cell, and insert the full description of the tour location.
3. Update the data source in ArcGIS StoryMaps.

1. Open the story in ArcGIS StoryMaps.
2. On the tour configuration bar, click the Edit data source button.
3. In the Edit data source panel, on the Data tab, select the new field from the Place description field drop-down menu. In this example, the ‘Description’ field is selected.

4. Click Save.

The description text is displayed in a complete paragraph, as shown below.