Collapse all Welcome to ArcGIS Desktop Help Copyright information GIS Dictionary

What's new in ArcGIS Desktop 9.1

What was new in ArcGIS Desktop 9.0

Getting started

Desktop Administration

Administering the ArcGIS License Manager 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 extension

ArcCatalog

Getting started with ArcCatalog Building the Catalog Managing the Catalog's contents The Contents tab Working in Details view Changing the columns in Details view Modifying the default settings for exploring contents Exploring an item's properties Organizing your data Converting data to a different format Exploring an item's geography Previewing an item's geographic data Exploring data in Geography view Creating thumbnails Exploring the values in a table About tabular data sources Previewing the values in a table Changing how tables look Calculating statistics Sorting records in a table in ArcCatalog Finding values in a table Adding and deleting columns Creating new data sources from the values in a table Working with metadata Searching for items Working with maps and layers About maps, layers, and graphs Opening a map from ArcCatalog Adding data to maps Creating a layer Creating a group layer Repairing the data sources in a layer Joining attributes to the layer's data Working with shapefiles Working with CAD data Working with coverages About coverages and INFO tables Creating a new coverage Creating a new INFO table Generating topology Defining a coverage's coordinate system Modifying a coverage's tics Modifying a coverage's extent Setting a coverage's tolerances Maintaining attributes About relationships and relationship classes Creating a coverage relationship class Working with rasters in ArcCatalog

ArcMap

Getting started with ArcMap An overview of ArcMap Layers, data frames, and the table of contents Starting ArcMap Opening a map Using the table of contents Looking at a map in data view and layout view Moving around the map Working with spatial bookmarks Opening magnifier and overview windows Exploring data on a map Saving a map and exiting ArcMap Saving to previous versions of ArcGIS Keyboard shortcuts in ArcMap Working with the map cache Creating maps Basics of making maps Creating a new map Adding layers to a map Adding coverages, shapefiles, and geodatabases to a map Adding data from the Internet Adding data from a GIS server Adding TINs as surfaces Adding CAD drawings About coordinate systems and map projections Specifying a coordinate system About creating interactive maps Referencing data in the map Applying a coordinate transformation to a CAD layer About displaying layers About presenting attribute data About map scale Map layout About the map tools About World files Adding x,y coordinate data to a map Managing layers Symbolizing your data Working with text An overview of working with text Adding new text to a map Working with data frame contents in layout view Organizing annotation into groups About labeling Displaying labels Prioritizing and positioning labels Specifying the text of labels About building label expressions Using text formatting tags About annotation Using feature-linked annotation A comparison of annotation groups vs. geodatabase annotation About coverage annotation pseudo items Displaying geodatabase annotation Displaying CAD and VPF annotation About editing CAD and VPF annotation Displaying coverage and SDE 3 annotation About editing coverage and SDE 3 annotation Displaying MapTips Working with graphics Laying out and printing maps Working with styles and symbols About styles Finding the styles you need Creating new symbols and map elements Modifying symbols and map elements Saving the current styles Organizing style contents Creating line symbols Creating fill symbols Creating marker symbols Creating text symbols Working with color Working with color ramps Working with tables Looking at data with graphs About looking at data with graphs Types of graphs Creating a graph Displaying a graph Modifying a graph Creating a static copy of a graph Managing graphs Saving and loading a graph Exporting a graph Creating reports Querying maps Analyzing geometric networks Working with rasters in ArcMap About rasters Choosing which raster formats will appear in the Add Data dialog Adding a raster dataset to a map Adding a raster catalog to a map Displaying rasters Improving raster display Displaying the raster resolution Removing the background area of a raster layer Changing the default RGB band combination About projecting raster datasets on-the-fly About georeferencing Georeferencing a raster dataset World files Symbolizing values of nodata in raster datasets Making selections using the geodatabase raster catalog Working with ArcPad An overview of ArcPad Adding the ArcPad toolbar About managing data in ArcPad Getting data for ArcPad Checking in edits from ArcPad Undoing a checkout for editing Working with StreetMap data GPS Support Tablet PC

ArcReader

An overview of ArcReader Table of contents, data frames, and layers Getting help in ArcReader Starting ArcReader Opening a map in ArcReader Controlling the look and feel of ArcReader Viewing a map in data view and layout view Using the ArcReader table of contents Working with data frames and layers Moving around on the map Moving around a 3D globe Using spatial bookmarks Opening the magnifier window Exploring data and features on a map ArcReader messages Printing from ArcReader Closing and exiting ArcReader

Geoprocessing in the ArcGIS environment

Geoprocessing tool reference

Building a geodatabase

Editing in ArcMap

Getting started with editing in ArcMap 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 Using the snapping environment Creating edit sketch geometry with the Traverse tool Traverse file format About setting distance units Setting direction measuring systems and units Using a digitizer About digitizing An overview of preparing to digitize Registering the paper map Digitizing features on a paper map Creating features from other features Editing existing features Splitting lines and polygons Trimming lines Extending lines Flipping lines Dividing lines with points Reshaping lines and polygons using a sketch Adding and deleting vertices Moving vertices Changing the properties of a sketch Scaling features Clipping features Stretching a feature's geometry proportionately Smoothing and generalizing features Editing topology Editing attributes Spatial adjustment Editing geometric networks Editing relationships and related objects 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

Geocoding

Linear referencing

Map projections

Writing geoprocessing scripts

Getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts Accessing tools within a geoprocessing script Batch processing with geoprocessing scripts Messaging and script tools Data properties and access when scripting Scripting Object: Properties and methods

Customizing the user interface

About customizing the user interface Basic user interface elements Saving your customizations Hiding and showing toolbars Creating custom toolbars Changing a toolbar's or menu's contents Changing a command's appearance Creating shortcut keys Setting toolbar options Creating, editing, and running macros Creating custom commands with VBA and UIControls Adding custom commands and toolbars from .dlls Updating the ArcID module Locking customization, documents, and templates Changing VBA security Sample VBA code Customize commands available in ArcMap Customize commands available in ArcCatalog

Migrating from ArcView GIS 3 to ArcView 9

Migrating from ArcInfo Workstation to ArcGIS Desktop

ESRI Data & Maps

Extensions

Getting more help

Using this Help system Getting help within the applications Contacting Technical Support Support for users located outside the United States Accessing ESRI Software Training Using the GIS Dictionary

Help for developers