Rotating Map Elements in ArcGIS 10.0

Question

I have imported a shapefile whole polygon is diagonally oriented. Rather than rotate the polygon, I would like to adjust the scale bar/legend/title to fit this unique orientation.

Would like to know it both through GUI and python.

Answer 1

If you go to the customize pulldown and select the toolbars flyout.
Choose the the data frame toolbar.

That has rotate data frame on it.
That should rotate the data in the data frame.
If I understand your question correctly you should not have to rotate all your other items.

Answer 2

You couldn't rotate the scale bar as it is, but if you convert the scale bar to graphics (right click on your scale bar and select "convert to graphics") you can then use the rotate tool in the draw toolbar.To display the draw toolbar, go to the customize pulldown and select the toolbars flyout. Choose the the draw toolbar.

Answer 3

Weird. I've never thought about it or tried this before but you are right.

The only thing I can think for you to do is convert the scale bar to graphics (right-click convert to graphics) after you tweaked it as you want it. Then you can rotate at an angle. You lose the automatic updating so if you change scale after you have to add a new scale bar.

Answer 4

The text and north arrow elements have an Angle property that you can set. You can see these in right-click, Properties. The scale bar and legend don't seem to have a rotation angle.

I don't see in the arcpy documentation where you can set this in python though.