Customizing and developing with ArcGIS > Customizing the user interface
About customizing the user interface |
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Release 9.3
Last modified June 5, 2008 |
Print all topics in : "Customizing the user interface" |
You may want the ArcMap and ArcCatalog interfaces to reflect your own preferences and the way you work.
Examples of customizations in ArcMap and ArcCatalog
You can customize ArcMap and ArcCatalog in many ways, such as:
- Positioning toolbars in a specific area of the interface
- Grouping commands in the way that works best for you
- Adding new macros or loading custom commands from another source
- Creating a custom button to carry out a programmed task
- Creating a custom tool to perform simple or complex tasks
- Removing unused commands from toolbars
- Loading styles
- Working consistently with the same geographic data (via templates)
Developing a customized work environment for your organization
If you work in a large organization, you may want to customize the work environment for some of the users. You can handle many customization tasks without writing a single line of code. You can change or create toolbars, menus, shortcut keys, and so on, to help you do your work in the most efficient way. You can provide additional functionality by creating custom buttons and tools that you can program to perform custom tasks.
Using the Customize dialog box
One of the principal ways you can tailor the applications to suit your needs is to use the Customize dialog box to change menus and toolbars. Click Customize on the Tools menu or right-click any open toolbar and choose Customize from the menu. When you open the Customize dialog box, you can modify existing menus, toolbars, and context menus with simple drag-and-drop techniques. You can also create your own menus, toolbars, and context menus.
If you change things radically and want to return the user interface to its core settings, you can do so easily.
Changing your application's appearance back to the factory settings
If you make customization changes to your Normal template for ArcCatalog or ArcMap and decide you would like to reset them to the original settings, simply delete the Normal template file. Upon startup, ArcMap and ArcCatalog will regenerate the Normal templates if they are missing.
Removing the ArcCatalog Normal template
The ArcCatalog Normal template, Normal.gxt, is located with your user settings. For example, in Windows 2000 or XP, it can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\ESRI\ArcCatalog.
Removing the ArcMap Normal template
The ArcCatalog Normal template, Normal.gxt, is also located with your user settings. For example, in Windows 2000 or XP, it can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\ESRI\ArcMap\Templates.
What to do with code
If you have some code or would like to write code to be used in ArcCatalog or ArcMap, this code needs to be entered as a macro or attached to a user interface control (UIControl).
Learn more about creating, editing, and running macros
Learn more about UIControls