Align descriptions after labels in ArcGIS legend

Question

I have produced a legend which includes both a label and description for each symbology. I would like the descriptions to align despite the label lengths differing between layers. In this example, "example 1" is part of a dataset which has much longer layer names, hence a wider gap. I have tried wrapping text but can't see a means of separating the label and description. I have also tried offsetting the description but this takes quite a lot of manual time to repeat and it seems like there must be a quicker and more efficient way of doing it.

Answer 1

The only solution I've come up with for this problem over the years is to convert your legend the graphics, then rearrange the descriptions that way.

Answer 2

Make labels same length by adding space to the tail of short ones and apply any monospaced font, e.g. Courier:

The simplest way to do so is creating table with layer labels, populate new field using something like:

!ABCD!.ljust(16)

You can copy values from that field (right click on a cell) and paste them when changing (F2) layer label.

Answer 3

On the legend Layout tab, the text gap option controls the space between the label and the description.

In ArcMap 10.6, I am getting perfect alignment within and across layers for different length descriptions. I think you need to check that your description text symbol is set to Left alignment for the affected layers.