Overview of features

A feature needs to be selected before certain operations can be performed on it. For example, before you move, edit, or delete a feature, you must select it.

You can select a feature for editing by using the Select, Select & Vertex Editing, or Select at GPS Position tools. The Select tools are located on the Edit toolbar. In addition, the Select tool is located on the Advanced Select dialog box and the Find tool dialog box.

The Select and Select at GPS Position tools are used to change a feature’s attributes; insert and append vertices; and move, rotate, scale, resize, and delete features.

The Select and Vertex Editing tool is used to move (by pen, GPS, or offsets) and delete a feature’s vertices.

A layer must be made editable before a feature in that layer can be selected using any of the Select tools.

Tip

Selecting vertical or horizontal lines: The Select tool uses the Pen Tolerance for the search radius when selecting features. The default pen tolerance may be too small when selecting vertical or horizontal lines, making it difficult to select these features. You can increase the pen tolerance on the Display page of the ArcPad Options dialog box.

Tip

The Select at GPS Position tool is grayed out: The Select at GPS Position tool will be unavailable if the GPS is not active. Activate the GPS to use the Select at GPS Position tool.

Tip

How do I know if I have selected a feature?: Using the Select and Select at GPS Position tools, the selected feature is highlighted using the specified highlight color and with a rectangle, using a dashed line, outlining the geographic extent of the feature. However, the bounding box rectangle may not always be visible if the feature’s extent is outside of the current view’s extent.

Using the Select and Vertex Editing tool, the extent of the selected feature is highlighted and each vertex of the feature is shown using a blue square.

The highlight color can be selected on the Display page of the ArcPad Options dialog box.