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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

What is ArcGIS Desktop?

ArcGIS geodatabase

ArcGIS geoprocessing

ArcGIS geovisualization

ArcGIS Desktop extensions

GIS data structure types

Data types supported in ArcGIS
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

An overview of ArcCatalog

Starting ArcCatalog

Browsing through the Catalog

What's in the Catalog?

Repositioning the Catalog tree

Stopping ArcCatalog
Building the Catalog

About folders and file types

Managing folder connections

Geodatabases and their contents

Creating and accessing geodatabases

Creating spatial database connections

Adding OLE DB connections

About GIS servers and services

Connecting to GIS servers

Working with database connections

Hiding folders and items

Changing a data format's properties

Working with file types
Managing the Catalog's contents
Exploring an item's geography
Exploring the values in a table
Working with metadata
Searching for items

About search results

Finding items using the Search tool

Searching with geographic criteria

Searching with temporal criteria

Searching with keywords

Exploring the results of your search

Modifying the search results
Working with maps and layers
Working with shapefiles

About shapefiles, dBASE tables, and file types

Creating new shapefiles and dBASE tables

Adding and deleting attributes

Creating and updating indexes

Defining a shapefile's coordinate system
Working with CAD data

About CAD data

Defining a coordinate system for CAD data

Supported AutoCAD entities and MicroStation elements
Working with coverages
Working with rasters in ArcCatalog

About raster data

Properties of raster datasets

Exploring geodatabase raster catalogs

Tabular raster catalogs

Initial display properties of a raster

Setting the default band for a raster

Defining a raster's coordinate system

Calculating statistics for your raster dataset

Creating raster pyramids

Mosaicking rasters

Raster display performance tuning

Performance tuning for rasters in ArcSDE

Choosing which raster formats will appear in ArcCatalog

Supported raster formats

Technical specifications for raster formats

Pixel depth capacity
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

About managing layers

Changing a layer's text description

Copying layers

Removing layers from the map

Managing group layers

Displaying layers at certain scales

Changing the appearance of the table of contents

Working with data frames

Setting a data frame's coordinate system

Repairing broken data links

Changing a layer's drawing order

Accessing layer properties

Saving a layer to disk

Exporting data to a new coordinate system
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

An overview of working with graphics

Drawing points, lines, and circles

Selecting graphics

Moving, rotating, and ordering graphics

Aligning, distributing, and grouping graphics

Joining graphics
Laying out and printing maps
Working with styles and symbols
Working with tables
Looking at data with graphs
Creating reports

About reports

Creating a simple report

Setting the report type and size

Working with fields

Organizing report data

Adding report elements

Controlling the presentation of a report

Saving and loading a report

Using Crystal 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
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
Geocoding
Linear referencing
Getting started with linear referencing
Creating route data
Displaying and querying routes and events
Editing routes
Creating and editing event data
Map projections
Writing geoprocessing scripts
Getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts

An overview of writing geoprocessing scripts

Creating and debugging geoprocessing scripts

Additional help 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

Describing data in a geoprocessing script

Data access using cursors in a geoprocessing script

Working with geodatabases in a geoprocessing script
Scripting Object: Properties and methods

IGPDispatch object

Geoprocessor programming model
Properties and Methods

AddError method

AddMessage method

AddReturnMessage method

AddToolbox method

AddWarning method

CheckExtension method

CheckInExtension method

CheckOutExtension method

CheckProduct method

Command method

CopyParameter method

CreateObject method

Describe method

Exists method

GetMessage method

GetMessages method

GetParameter method

GetParameterAsText method

GetReturnCode method

GetSeverity method

GetSystemEnvironment method

InsertCursor method

ListDatasets method

ListEnvironments method

ListFeatureClasses method

ListFields method

ListIndexes method

ListRasters method

ListTables method

ListToolboxes method

ListTools method

ListWorkspaces method

MaxSeverity property

MessageCount property

OverWriteOutput method

ParameterCount property

ParseFieldName method

ParseTableName method

ProductInfo method

QualifyFieldName method

QualifyTableName method

RefreshCatalog method

RemoveToolbox method

SearchCursor method

SetParameter method

SetParameterAsText method

SetProduct method

TemporaryMapLayers property

TestSchemaLock method

Toolbox property

UpdateCursor method

Usage method

ValidateFieldName method

ValidateTableName method
Customizing the user interface
Migrating from ArcView GIS 3 to ArcView 9
Migrating from ArcInfo Workstation to ArcGIS Desktop
ESRI Data & Maps
Extensions
Getting more help
Help for developers