ArcMap - Data Driven Pages: Group features where page name field is the same

Question

I'm using DDP to show a series of farmland areas. Some of these have the same farmland area name but different attributes (based on land cover), so are two different features (by necessity). Is there a way to group these so that I can group these features for the DDP without having to edit the featureclass to create a multi-part feature, and so lose the detail I need to display in the map??

I'm using ArcGIS 10.0.

Answer 1

I don't think there is a way to do it without manipulating the data in some way.

You can dissolve your feature class on the field you want to group on, creating a second feature class.

Then use that feature class with DDP to generate the pages, but don't have it visible. Instead you can display your original features. As long as you don't add it to the legend and it's not visible, the maps themselves won't look any different.

• GISGe: This solution is fine except that you won't be able to use the dissolved atrributes as dynamic text in the page layout. If you need to do this, you should use arcpy instead of DDP.