Toolbars

Zoom In/Zoom Out

The Zoom In and Zoom Out tools allow you to draw a box on the map with the tool active and zoom into or out from a portion of the map. For example, if you wanted to zoom to just the State of Colorado, select the Zoom In tool and draw a box around the state’s boundary.

Pan

The Pan tool is used to move the data around within the same extent (zoom level). Once you’ve zoomed in or out from the data, the pan tool will allow you to look at it. Panning can also be accomplished by:
1.Pressing and holding the center mouse button, and
2. Using the Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys on the keyboard

Identify

The identify button will open the “Identify” dialog box displaying the attributes of the feature clicked on. Use this tool to interactively find out information of features on your map.

Select Features

An interactive arrow which allows you to select features by clicking on the map instead of using the attribute table. Use the shift click to select multiple values when in Create a New Selection mode Used in conjunction with the Interactive Selection Method in the Selection Menu

The Interactive Selection tool has five options of tools to use with your data. Select by Rectangle This tool is used as both the “single feature” tool, that is to say, the tool used to single click and select one feature, as well as it’s ability to draw a rectangle and select all the features inside it. Select by Polygon This tool is used by drawing a polygon (thee or more clicks anywhere that connect the dots and close the shape) and selecting all the features that fall within or along it’s boundaries. Select by Lasso This tool selects features when a shape is drawn by holding the left mouse button and dragging a shape around. When the lasso is closed, all the features inside or intersecting the boundary of the lasso are selected. Select by Circle This tool will select any feature that falls inside or along the boundary of a drawn circle Select by Line This tool will select any feature intersecting a line drawn by clicking two or more times, after the tool connects the dots

Clear Selected

Clears all selected features in all layers. If there are no selected features anywhere in the map, this option will be grayed out.
Note: If you’d like to clear the selection from only one layer, use the clear selected button found either in the attribute table’s Table Action Buttons or in the View by Selected Table of Contents view.

Go to Previous/Next Extent

These buttons will step through the last and next extents. If you zoom out, then pan from Colorado to Florida, the zoom in on Miami, the Last Extent button will return to the view of Florida, then with another click to Colorado, then with a third click, the United States. The Next Extent button will step forward through that sequence. Thise buttons are similar to the “back” and “next” buttons in a web browser.

Select Elements

The Select Elements tool is used to select items other than features for editing.
This can also be considered the “nothing” tool, which will release most other tools from being active.
In Layout View, the Select Elements tool will select the different elements.

Fixed Zoom In/Fixed Zoom Out

Fixed Zoom In and Fixed Zoom Out will step-zoom the map in or our at pre-defined intervals.

Full Extent

The full extent button will zoom your map to the default or defined largest extent of all layers in the map (by default) or the level defined in the extent used by the full extent command section under the Data Frame tab in the Data Frame Properties.
Note: The full extent button is a ‘single click button’ and does the action immediately. It does not open a tool which changes your cursor so you can interact with the map.

Measure

The measure tool is used to measure areas and distances on your map.
• Segment is between clicks
• Length is the total of all clicks

Go to XY

Used to jump to a specific point on the map.

Supported coordinate forms (Units, above - found under the drop down arrow):

• Decimal degrees
• Degrees Minutes Seconds
• Degrees Decimals Degrees
• MGRS
• U.S. National Grid
• UTM

Once a coordinate pair is defined, the tool allows you to:

• Pan to (centers the point at the current extent)
• Zoom to (zooms to the point at the smallest extent possible)
• Flash point (map doesn’t move, but point ‘flashes’ and two laser lines zoom across the screen to mark the point)
• Add point (adds a graphical representation of the point. This point is not saved anywhere but in your MXD as a graphic)
• Add labeled point (same as ‘Add point’ but adds a label)
• Add Callout (adds a callout graphic with the coordinates labeled inside)
• Use the ‘Recent’ list (found between the callout and units buttons) to scroll through other coordinates you’ve typed in within this MXD ONLY

Editor Menu

Start Editing Begins an editing session. Once in an editing session, modifications to existing can be made. (Even with digitizing new data, it is still a modification to existing data since you created a new feature class before editing, then plan to populate it with editing. Stop Editing Stops the editing session.   Stopping editing does not automatically save edits, but should provide you with a prompt to save or discard your edits. Tools which are locked during editing will become available when editing is stopped. Save Edits Note: Unlike some software, ArcGIS ‘undo’ will only go back to the last save not the beginning of the software session. Merge... i.e. The State of Hawaii. All the islands are part of the state, but as a single part feature, each individual island will be a record in the attribute table. Merging them into a multipart feature will ‘light up’ all the islands when the record ‘Hawaii’ is selected in the attribute table. ArcGIS Help Article Snapping ► Opens the Snapping toolbar. The Snapping toolbar controls to what (Point, Edge, Vertex, End) your cursor will snap when editing.

Edit Tool

1. Used to select the feature you want to edit
2. Any selectable feature is available to select.
3. When two or more features are selected when clicking, a selection drop down will appear for you to choose one.
   • Not choosing selects the top most layer

Straight Segment

Used to create lines. Each click puts down one vertex, then connects a straight line to the next vertex clicked.

Vertices will continue to be placed until you finish your sketch F2 Right click and ‘Finish Sketch’ Double-click

End Point Arc Segment

The ‘end point arc segment’ tool creates a curve between the two end vertices laid down.

Click where the curve should start Click where the curve should end The tool automatically starts curving between the two points as you move your mouse around To end sketch: Double click; right-click and choose “End Sketch”; press F2

Segment Creation Tools

A variety of line creation tools are available to digitize higher quality data.
Note: The tool visible next to the black dropdown arrow many vary as it shows the last tool from the mini-menu which was used.

Trace Tool The Trace tool will run along any existing feature, creating a portion of polyline or polygon which is exactly coincident with the traced feature. Right Angle The Right Angle tool will digitize a right angle when three vertices are placed on the map. Midpoint The Midpoint tool automatically places an additional vertex at the midpoint between two intentionally placed vertices. Bezier Curve Segment The Bezier Curve Segment tool creates smooth curves utilizing “handles” that help establish the degree of the curve.

Edit Vertices

Edit Vertices is a tool that allows you to move or delete one or more existing vertices, as well as add new vertices to the feature. For example, if you have a road that is in the correct place, but the previous technician represented a pretty steep curve with just a few vertices, you can add a few more then move them into place to create the best line representation possible.
 

Reshape Feature Tool

Reshape Feature allows you to select a single feature and change a portion of it, for example, if you have a river that shows it is flowing right through a building and you can see in the imagery it actually flows to the south of that building, you can select that river and use the Reshape Feature tool to draw along the actual path to get people out of “harms way”.
 

Continue Feature Tool

The continue feature allows the user to continue a feature which has been completed as though they were still editing

Cut Polygon Tool

Split Tool

Rotate Tool

Attributes Window

Opens the attribute window to allow a user to enter the attributes for the currently selected/being edited feature

Sketch Properties

Once in ‘Edit Vertices’ mode, the sketch properties window can be opened with the ‘Sketch Properties’ button. You can mark off multiple vertices to delete whole parts of your feature class at once. See screenshot for more details Sketch Properties

Create Features Window

Toggles the ‘Create Features’ window on and off.

Use this button if you’ve X’d your window closed and it will not automatically appear when you begin an edit session.