Thematic layers are only saved in the workspace. You can also save as a default view in the metadata, but this is still dynamically applied and may change as data changes and will not be included in exported files. They have some other disadvantages too, such as a size limit and are slow to load on large data.
How can I save as embedded map styles which overcome these limitations?
Solution
In the Discover tool Project>Setup>Picklist Manager. If you click Configure>Create picklist from dataset. This gives an option to create a picklist from a thematic layer. This picklist can then be applied use the Project>Apply>Picklist Styles to a layer and will be save as embedded map object styles.
Note that this will only work for individual character/string based thematics.
You can also use the attached tool was is from the MapBasic SDK samples.
