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Welcome to ArcGIS Desktop Help
Copyright information
Acknowledgements
GIS Dictionary
What's new in ArcGIS
Getting started
Fundamentals of GIS

Three views of GIS

How maps convey geographic information

Georeferencing and coordinate systems

Elements of geographic information

How GIS represents and organizes geographic information

How ArcGIS users work with geographic information

Users work with many data types and data formats in ArcGIS

Comparing Geoprocessing and Spatial Analysis
Introducing ArcGIS Desktop

What is ArcGIS 9.3

An overview of ArcGIS Desktop

Using ArcGIS Desktop

Mapping and visualization in ArcMap

The geodatabase

Workspace and dataset management with ArcCatalog

Data compilation and editing

Geoprocessing and analysis

Tips and tricks within ArcGIS
Tutorials

Tutorials

3D Analyst Tutorial

Animation in ArcMap Tutorial

ArcCatalog Tutorial

ArcMap Tutorial

ArcGIS Publisher Tutorial

ArcReader Tutorial

ArcScan Tutorial

Building a Geodatabase Tutorial

Database Servers Tutorial

Data Interoperability Tutorial

Editing Geodatabases Tutorial

Editing GIS Features Tutorial

Geocoding Tutorial

Geoprocessing Tutorial

Geostatistical Analyst Tutorial

Getting Started with ArcGIS Tutorial

Linear Referencing Tutorial

Maplex Tutorial

Network Analyst Tutorial

Representations Tutorial

Schematics Tutorial

Spatial Analyst Tutorial

StreetMap Tutorial

Survey Analyst Tutorial

Tracking Analyst Tutorial
Toolbars
Getting more help
Map projections and coordinate systems
Getting started with map projections

An overview of map projections

Projection basics the GIS professional needs to know

About the geoid, ellipsoid, spheroid and datum, and how they are related

Identifying an unknown coordinate system

Converting Degrees Minutes Seconds values to Decimal Degree values
Geographic coordinate systems

About geographic coordinate systems

Spheroids and spheres

Datums

North American datums

What happens to features at +/-180 (dateline)?

GCS_Assumed_Geographic_1
Projected coordinate systems

About projected coordinate systems

About map projections

Projection types

Planar projections

Conic projections

Cylindrical projections

Other projections

Projection parameters
Geographic transformations
Supported map projections

List of supported map projections

Aitoff

Alaska Grid

Alaska Series E

Albers Equal Area Conic

Azimuthal Equidistant

Behrmann Equal Area Cylindrical

Bipolar Oblique Conformal Conic

Bonne

Cassini-Soldner

Chamberlin Trimetric

Craster Parabolic

Cube

Cylindrical Equal Area

Double Stereographic

Eckert I

Eckert II

Eckert III

Eckert IV

Eckert V

Eckert VI

Equidistant Conic

Equidistant Cylindrical

Equirectangular

Fuller

Gall's Stereographic

Gauss-Krüger

Geocentric Coordinate System

Geographic Coordinate System

Gnomonic

Goodes Homolosine

Great Britain National Grid

Hammer-Aitoff

Hotine Oblique Mercator

Krovak

Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

Lambert Conformal Conic

Local Cartesian Projection

Loximuthal

McBryde-Thomas Flat-Polar Quartic

Mercator

Miller Cylindrical

Mollweide

New Zealand National Grid

Orthographic

Perspective

Plate Carrée

Polar Stereographic

Polyconic

Quartic Authalic

Rectified Skewed Orthomorphic

Robinson

Simple Conic

Sinusoidal

Space Oblique Mercator

State Plane Coordinate System

Stereographic

Times projection

Transverse Mercator

Two-Point Equidistant

Universal Polar Stereographic

Universal Transverse Mercator

Van der Grinten I

Vertical Near-Side Perspective

Winkel I

Winkel II

Winkel Tripel
Vertical coordinate systems

About vertical coordinate systems

Vertical datums

Geoid
Mapping and visualization
An overview of mapping and visualization
Using ArcMap

Layers, data frames, and the table of contents

Starting ArcMap

Creating a new map

Opening a map

Using the table of contents

About coordinate systems and map projections

Specifying a coordinate system

Referencing data in the map

Working with data frames

Pausing the map's drawing

Saving a map and exiting ArcMap

Saving to previous versions of ArcGIS

Keyboard shortcuts in ArcMap
Working with layers
Navigating and interacting with maps
Navigating maps and layout pages
Interacting with maps
Adding graphics and text to maps
Working with graphics
Working with text
Symbolizing data
Applying symbology
Styles and symbols
Animation
Using cartographic representations
Page layout and map composition
Working with graphs and reports
Looking at data with graphs
(Pre-ArcGIS 9.2) Looking at data with graphs
Creating reports
Working with web maps in ArcGIS

An overview of GIS Web map layers

Working with ArcGIS Server in ArcGIS Desktop
Using services from ArcGIS Server
Using services from ArcIMS
Using OGC Services
Using KML
Using ArcGIS Online
Using image service layers
Working with service layers in the table of contents
Printing and exporting maps containing service layers
Publishing optimized map services in ArcGIS

Publishing optimized map services

Drawing differences between ArcMap and optimized map services
Map Service Publication Toolbar error messages
Map Service Publication Toolbar warning messages
Map Service Publishing Toolbar information messages
Editing and data compilation

An overview of editing and data compilation
Getting started with editing
Common editing tasks

Common point editing tasks

Common line editing tasks

Common polygon editing tasks

Common annotation editing tasks

Common multipoint editing tasks

Editing data in a different projection
Creating new features

About creating new features

Creating point features and vertices

Creating lines and polygons

Creating segments using angles and lengths

Creating segments using angles from existing segments

Creating segments that are circular arc curves

Creating segments by tracing features

Creating buffers

Mirroring features

Combining features from different layers

Intersecting features

Merging and separating features

Copying parallel line features

Creating a fillet curve between two lines

Creating cul-de-sac lines

Creating lines with the Traverse window

Creating lines with the 2-Point Line window

Creating lines with the Offset Line window
Editing existing features

Moving features

Rotating features

Copying and pasting features

Deleting features

Adding and deleting vertices

Moving vertices

Editing attribute values of a vertex

Reshaping lines and polygons using a sketch

Splitting polygon features

Splitting line features

Trimming lines

Extending lines

Flipping lines

Scaling features

Clipping features

Stretching a feature's geometry proportionately

Simplifying and smoothing features
Editing attributes
Editing annotation

An overview of editing annotation

Creating new annotation features

Creating and editing annotation that follows features

Editing the size and position of annotation features

Editing annotation in the Attributes dialog box

Editing the appearance of annotation features

Editing feature-linked annotation
Editing dimension features

About editing dimension features

Creating dimension features

Modifying a dimension feature's geometry and style
Using a digitizer
Spatial adjustment
Editing topology
Editing relationships and related objects
COGO

An overview of COGO

Common COGO workflows

About COGO descriptions

Adding COGO fields to a feature class

Traverse file format

Offset points file format

Applying a ground to grid correction

Reporting COGO descriptions

Using the Curve Calculator command

Using the COGO Area command

Splitting features into COGO lines
Tables and attribute information
Understanding tables and attribute information

An overview of tables and attribute information

About tabular data sources

Common tables and attributes tasks

Keyboard shortcuts for working with tables
Creating tables and managing attribute information
Displaying tables and attribute information

Previewing a table in ArcCatalog

Adding and viewing tables in ArcMap

Setting field properties, aliases, and table display options

Navigating to and finding records in a table

Sorting records in a table

Selecting records in a table

Summarizing data in a table

Printing a table

Adding a table to a layout

Viewing statistics for a table

Creating a graph from a table

Creating a report from a table
Geoprocessing

What is geoprocessing?

A whirlwind tour of geoprocessing

Geoprocessing tools

Geoprocessing framework

Frequently Asked Questions about geoprocessing
Fundamental tool concepts

An introduction to the fundamental tools

Overlay analysis

Proximity analysis

Table analysis and management

Surface creation and analysis

Statistical analysis

Extracting data
Using geoprocessing tools
Automating your work with models
Automating your work with scripts

An overview of writing geoprocessing scripts
Getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts
Accessing tools within a geoprocessing script
Creating script tools
Batch processing with geoprocessing scripts
Data properties and access when scripting
Working with AMLs
Scripting object: Properties and Methods
Geoprocessing environments
Documenting tools and toolboxes
Sharing tools and toolboxes
Geoprocessing with ArcGIS Server

An overview of geoprocessing with ArcGIS Server

Key concepts for geoprocessing services

Guide to related geoprocessing with server topics

Input and output data types

Creating models for geoprocessing services

Preparing map documents containing tool layers

Defining output symbology for geoprocessing tasks

Defining symbology for input feature sets

Publishing geoprocessing services

Managing the jobs directory

Deploying services on multiple computers - LocalJobsDirectory

Data access considerations for geoprocessing tasks

Creating tasks for the UNIX/Linux environment

Creating script tools for geoprocessing tasks

Using geoprocessing tasks in Python scripts

Spatial reference considerations for geoprocessing services

Performance tips for geoprocessing services

Checklist for authoring and publishing geoprocessing services

Python scripts to zip and unzip data
Geoprocessing service examples
Keeping track of geoprocessing history

An overview of geoprocessing history

History log files

Geoprocessing history in metadata
Advanced modeling through simulations

An overview of advanced modeling through simulations

General concepts of modeling through simulations
Developing the different modeling approaches
Geoprocessing tool reference
Geodatabases and ArcSDE
Data management with ArcCatalog
Image and raster data management
Understanding raster data

What is raster data?

Raster bands

Cell size of raster data

Representing features in a raster dataset

Discrete and continuous data

Raster dataset zones and regions

Raster dataset attribute tables

Raster data organization

Gathering basic raster dataset information
Supported raster data
Properties of raster data

About raster dataset properties

Raster pyramids

Raster dataset statistics

Raster compression

About reduced resolution dataset files

About auxiliary files

About proxy files

Defining a raster's coordinate system

Raster dataset colormaps

Bit depth capacity for raster dataset cells

NoData in raster datasets

World files for raster datasets
Designing a raster database
Building and managing a raster database

How raster data is stored in a geodatabase

Exploring geodatabase raster catalogs

Creating raster datasets in a geodatabase

Creating raster catalogs in a geodatabase

Importing raster datasets

Exporting or converting raster datasets

Exporting raster catalogs

Mosaicking raster datasets

Persisting a transformation to a raster dataset without rectifying it

Migrating your 8.x raster catalog

Updating your geodatabase raster catalog footprints

Loading large raster datasets into ArcSDE

Transferring large raster datasets

Building large raster datasets-case studies

Raster data and disconnected editing
Raster display and visualization
Raster analysis and geoprocessing

About analyzing raster data

Making selections using the geodatabase raster catalog

Raster conversion

Core geoprocessing tools for raster data

About environment settings for raster data

Specifying raster storage environment settings

Specifying raster analysis environment settings

Specifying the snap raster environment setting
Serving raster data
Serving raster data
Data support in ArcGIS
Extensions
Geocoding and address management
Getting started with geocoding
Understanding geocoding

What is an address?

The geocoding work flow

The geocoding framework

The process of geocoding

Customization of the address locator

Common geocoding tasks
Preparing for geocoding
Building an address locator

Defining the address locator components

Creating an address locator

Modifying an address locator's settings

Managing address locators in ArcMap

Managing address locators in ArcCatalog

Migrating address locators created with ArcGIS prior to version 9.2
Locating addresses

The geocoding process

Finding an individual address

Getting an address of a location

Geocoding a table of addresses

Rematching a geocoded feature class
Additional geocoding techniques

Alternative searches

The Alternate Name table tab

The Alias Table dialog box

Building an address locator for alternative searches

Searching for an intersection

Building a composite address locator
Keeping an address locator current

Updating your reference data

Versioned data and the address locator

Rebuilding address locators
Distributing your address locator

Deciding to share an address locator

Collecting address locators

Making your address locator public

Accessing distributed address locators

Sharing pre-9.2 address locators
Adjusting your address locator file

Exploring the address locator file

Why change your address locator file?

Changing default settings

Changing default settings in the address locator template file

Table schema and the locator file

Accommodating alternative reference table schema

Modifying the query

Accommodating changes in the geocoding rule base files

Address Locator Properties dialog box
About StreetMap data
Linear referencing
Getting started with linear referencing

An overview of linear referencing

Common tasks in linear referencing

Some linear referencing scenarios

Linear referencing datasets in ArcGIS

Designing a linear referencing system in your geodatabase
Creating route feature classes
Displaying and querying route feature classes

An overview of displaying and querying route feature classes

Working with route feature classes in ArcMap

Setting the route identifier field

Querying route feature classes

Displaying route measure anomalies

About hatching route feature classes

Hatching options

Displaying hatches

Manipulating the text on hatches

Working with hatch styles
Displaying and querying route events

An overview of displaying and querying route events

Dynamic segmentation

Adding route events
Editing routes
Creating and editing event data

An overview of creating and editing event data

Creating event tables in ArcCatalog

About locating features along routes

Locating features along routes

Editing event tables in ArcMap
Working with route event data
Network analysis

Using the Network Analyst extension
Analyzing geometric networks
Mobile GIS
Interoperability and standards support

Overview of interoperability

Overview of OGC and ISO support

ESRI protocols and programming interfaces
GML support in ArcGIS
WFS support in ArcGIS
WCS support in ArcGIS

An overview of WCS support in ArcGIS
WMS support in ArcGIS
KML support in ArcGIS

An overview of KML support in ArcGIS

KML elements

Why share GIS data as KML?

Translating ArcGIS information to KML

Preparing your map documents in ArcGIS for KML publishing

Creating KML files

Serving KML with ArcGIS Server

KML examples

Using folders to organize KML content

Frequently asked questions about KML
Customizing and developing with ArcGIS

An overview of customizing ArcGIS
Customizing the user interface
Writing macros using VBA

Getting started with VBA

Creating, editing, and running macros

Creating custom commands with VBA and UI Controls

Adding custom commands and toolbars from .dlls

Updating the ArcID module

Locking documents and templates

Changing VBA security

Sample VBA code
Extending ArcGIS desktop applications

About extending ArcGIS
Guide to data that comes with ArcGIS
Licensing and desktop administration

Administering the ArcGIS License Manager

Setting up license managers for ArcGIS 93 concurrent use products

Checking license availability

Viewing and changing the license manager

Common license manager problems and how to solve them

Setting the software product

Registering ArcView or ArcEditor and extensions

Evaluating an ArcGIS Desktop extension

Error reporting for ArcGIS software crash data

Frequently asked questions about error reporting
GIS Servers and services