The basemap gallery

A basemap provides a background of geographical context for the content that you want to display in a map. The basemap of the current map is displayed at the bottom of the Layers panel.

When you create a new map, you can choose which basemap you want to use. You can also change the basemap of your current map at any time by using the basemap gallery, which shows a range of basemaps provided by Esri via ArcGIS Online. Click the Basemap button on the Mapping toolbar tab and click the basemap you want to switch to.

Notice that when you change the basemap, the other content in the map is not affected.

Note:

• If the spatial reference of the map is not Web Mercator, the basemap gallery will be disabled.
• Some basemaps contain labels that will be shown above other layers that you add to the map.

Learn more about creating new maps