Hi I notice that maps made with -format esri seem to be immune to layout settings. I get 4 sets of shape files regardless of my layout settings, Outline2d Lines2d Points2d Areas2d Now I was about to write that because these all lack symbology, only the outline is of any value, and so to reduce the garbage content (60% of the file size produced) I tried using symbol-hide group all #hides ALL except passage infill colour Alas, the directories and files produced are identical. But on closer inspection I see that the lines, points and areas are quite rich in attributes, so there is some potential for them to be useful. Two questions: Are there any layout settings intended to be relevant to 2d GIS outputs? Has anyone put together any arcmap 8.3 (or other free GIS package) utilities that make use of the line, point and area attributes? For example to semi automatically display the text or add symbology or hide entities with particular attributes. (I'm also not very good with GIS :) ) Bruce