ArcView Tutorial I: A Basic Tour

Starting ArcView

To start ArcView, find the ArcView icon on the screen:

Double-click the icon to start the program (click twice rapidly with left mouse button while pointer is over the icon).

Note: if the icon isn't visible on the screen, you may need to go to: start menu, program files, ESRI, Arcview and click the icon.

ArcView will take anywhere from about 5 seconds to load on fast machines to several minutes on slow ones. While it's loading, nothing may seem to be happening, but resist the temptation to click on the icon again -- your computer may load another copy of ArcView and the whole machine will slow down!

Once ArcView starts, it may obscure part of this window. You should maximize the window by clicking middle icon in the top right of the window () or resize and/or move windows around until you can comfortably work with both tutorial and program windows.

Remember to save frequently in ArcView. Neither ArcView nor Windows are the most stable platforms in the world, especially when dealing with large data files. SAVE OFTEN. Then save again. And again. It may also be a good idea to occasionally save under a different name, i.e. karluk.apr --> karluk1.apr, just to back up your file at the end of each day.

To quit ArcView you choose the File menu, then Exit or click the X in the top right corner (don't do it now, though). If you have changed anything in the file you have been working on, ArcView asks if you want to save the changes before quitting.

To begin, some definitions. A theme is a file containing graphic information required to draw a set of geographic features together with information about these features; a theme usually contains data on a single type of feature (streets, parcels, rivers, etc.). A table is a data file that contains rows of information about geographic features, one row to each feature, where each column represents one attribute; tables can be linked or joined to themes. A view is a collection of themes that are overlaid one over the other to create a composite map. A project file contains information about the collection of files (themes, tables, views) associated with a particular project; by storing this information one can restart work on a project where it was left off. A thematic map is a map that use colors, textures, or symbols to show the spatial distribution of characteristics; looking at a thematic map can reveal insights that cannot easily be discovered when viewing tabular representations of the same information. A coverage is essentially the same as a theme.

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