This tutorial will introduce users to the ESRI ArcMap application, identifying the different menus, toolbars and buttons and explaining how to use some simple features. This tutorial will also make users familiar with viewing geographic spatial data in the display area of ArcMap.
Open ArcMap by double clicking the desktop icon or loading it from the Start Menu.
When you first open the ArcMap application, it will prompt you to make a selection for starting ArcMap. The first option simply opens a new empty map. The second option allows you to load a pre-existing template that can be used to achieve certain layouts and base maps. The third option allows you to open up an existing map document, which was saved prior to opening ArcMap.
For this tutorial we will be selecting the first option, and begin with an empty map.
Now that ArcMap is open with an empty map, take a look at the different menus at the top of the screen. As you can see ArcMap has many available features stored in these menus. Just underneath the top menu, you will find the Standard Toolbar which has many simple buttons such as New, Open, Save, Print etc. In the center of this toolbar there is an icon which can be used to Add Data to the current map. The drop-down list which is currently grayed out is used to display the scale of the map being displayed. The next icon can launch the Editor Toolbar which is used to manipulate, modify and create new and existing geographic data. The Launch ArcCatalog button can be helpful when you want to manage geographic data sets and view the metadata information. If you click the ArcToolbox icon, the ArcToolbox menu will show up which includes all the major features and tools that are provided through the different extensions. Note: Many of these features are dependent on licenses. Command Line entry is also possible with ArcMap and can be turned on using the appropriate icon.
On the left hand side of the screen you will find the Table of Contents (TOC). Currently the TOC section has a single data frame name Layers. Now we should add some geographic data to our data frame.
Click the Add Data button located in the Standard Toolbar. Browse your directories and select a Shapefile (.shp) of your choice. An item should now exist in your Layers section of the TOC, and geographic data will be visible in the display area. Right click on the item name in the TOC and select Properties, take a quick look through all the tabs to view the available information for your dataset. Close the Properties dialog when you are finished.
There should be a floating Tools Toolbar which has tools used to browse and explore geographic data. Try selecting the zoom in button and clicking on the geographic data. Note: You can also click and drag a bounding box to zoom into a particular section of the geographic data. If you get too zoomed in, press the Full Extent icon, which looks like a globe, to zoom back to the full extent of the data. The hand next to the globe is the Pan tool which can be used to browse and move the geographic data around in the display area.
Use the tools in the floating Tools Toolbar to get familiar with viewing geographic data in ArcMap. Familiarize yourself with the zoom controls and selection features. Try adding more geographic data to the map and turning on and off the layers in the TOC. Users should now be familiar with the layout of ArcMap’s menus and toolbars and be comfortable browsing and viewing geographic data in the display area.
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