Some Concepts That Underpin GIS - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 61

37. Explore the Spatial aspect of metadata by reading further down in the Resource Identification
section of ArcGIS Metadata. What is the westernmost (leftmost) bounding local coordinate?
___________.
38. Expand the Esri Fields and Subtypes headings to explore the Attributes given by the metadata.
What is the data type of the FLOW_RATE? _________. What is the Output width of X_COORD?
_________.
Other stylesheets are available for different metadata compliances. With the exception of ArcGIS's Item
Description (which is the default when you install ArcGIS 10), each has its own compliance standard.
Along with this, each will have a varying degree of usefulness and user friendliness. Ultimately, it is up to
the organization you are working with as to which standard it uses.
After exploring the metadata, you should have a good idea of what is useful information to have within
a metadata file. Were there pieces of information you could not find within the ArcGIS metadata? If the
FGDC metadata were completely populated, would it have the information? Consider what information you
would have to gather to generate FGDC complaint metadata for this data set.
Using ArcCatalog to Place Data in ArcMap
You have examined ArcCatalog and have used ArcCatalog to find and connect to data sets you want and to
explore them. As previously described, ArcMap is the other major component of ArcGIS Desktop. ArcMap
lets you see, create, examine, query, edit, and develop geographic data and maps. Your first step in using
ArcMap is to place the data you have found with ArcCatalog into ArcMap. There are several ways to do this.
Four are described in the following discussion. First, you need to perform a couple of setup steps.
39. From the ArcCatalog Standard toolbar, launch ArcMap. You want to start with a new, empty,
blank map. One way to do this is just to press Cancel. Make ArcMap occupy the full area of the
monitor screen.
40. Now do either of the next two steps to put ArcCatalog and ArcMap on the screen at the same time.
41. Right-click an empty area of the Windows taskbar to bring up a menu. (The Windows taskbar will
be located on one of the four edges of your monitor screen; it contains the Start button.) From
this menu, select “Show windows side by side” (In Windows XP: “ Tile Windows Vertically”). If
necessary, minimize any windows besides ArcCatalog or ArcMap that appear, and “re-tile.” 23
42. If the preceding procedure didn't work for you, try this: Click the middle icon (named Restore
Down) of the three in the far upper right of the ArcMap window. That has the effect of reducing
the size of the window. By dragging sides and corners of the ArcMap window, make it occupy
one half of the monitor screen. Make ArcCatalog occupy the other half. (If you are lucky enough
to have two monitors on the same computer that serve as a single monitor (a dual-monitor
display), put ArcMap on one screen and ArcCatalog on the other.)
23 Windows 7 users have another interesting option: drag the title bar of ArcMap off to one side of the screen so that
Windows 7 automatically fills in half the screen with the ArcMap window. Repeat the procedure for ArcCatalog on the
other side of the screen. An advantage to this procedure is that you get to instruct Windows as to which window you
want on the left and which window you want on the right.