Is there a way to keep labels and symbols from displaying inside an extent indicator?

Question

I've been working on a utilities map and have been asked to turn off the labels and symbols within the extent indicator on the larger scale map and show them only in the detailed map. Is there a way to do this without converting labels to annotation and making a copy of and editing each individual shapefile specifically for this map?

Answer 1

The first thing that you could try is to use a display scale range so that the label disappear when you zoom out (layer properties > label). At the same place, you can also handle conflicts, but this is more complex. For symbols it is the same.

Answer 2

I have two...workable solutions,

First solution: set label classes for the features in question. Then change the default class to not include anything within the extent. This does require writing SQL that calls out each of these features individually so not a great solution.

Second solution: create a new Polygon feature mimicking the extent indicator. Turn it on, but make its symbology invisible. Then set its feature weight to High/1000 so nothing get labeled over it. If you want, you could also set it so only the border has a weight and the interior doesn't.

Answer 3

Insert a new data frame, add your layers to that. Don't label any. Set the data frame extent of the new data frame to that of the first one (Data Frame Properties > Data Frame tab > Extent drop down > Other Data Frame). Adjust your layout as desired.