Some Concepts That Underpin GIS - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 44

words “Catalog Tree” and observe the results. Click the push pin again to re-establish
the Catalog Tree, thus turning off Auto Hide. Another feature to experiment with: drag
the dividing line separating the panes to the left, then to the right, to change the space
devoted to each. Notice that, if there is not sufficient room for the length of the longest
entry's text string, a scroll bar appears at the bottom of the window, which lets you look at
different parts of the window. Further, if you pause the cursor over a text string that is not
completely visible, the entire contents of the string will show up in a box that overlays the
incomplete string.
When starting ArcCatalog for the very first time after installing it, the pane on the left side will not have
any Folder Connections. No local drives, no network drives. Step 1 of this chapter gave one method of
connecting to the C:\ drive so that at least that will be visible. You may (and should!) generate additional
references to data sets that you are particularly interested in or want to work with so they will be easily
accessible. This is called “connecting to a folder” and is a special feature of ArcCatalog that provides a
shortcut to data. In the next steps, you will make a connection to a folder containing the HYDRANTS data
for the village you will explore.
9. Collapse all the entries in the Catalog Tree completely by clicking each “-“. Click Folder
Connections in the Catalog Tree.
Connecting to a Folder
10. From the File menu, select Connect To Folder. The Connect to Folder window appears. Using
that window, expanding the entries in its tree as necessary, starting with Computer, navigate to
a folder named 13
[___]IGIS-Arc\Village_Data\
Click that folder so that its name is highlighted. See Figure 1-20. Press the OK button. Observe
that the Catalog Tree (in the left pane) now contains an entry (currently selected) that gives you
access directly to the desired folder. Also, the path to that folder is shown in the Location text
box and in the title bar of the ArcCatalog window.) Now whenever you want to access that folder,
you merely need to find this direct shortcut in the Catalog Tree, rather than having to navigate to
it through levels of hierarchy.
Basically, connecting to a folder provides a shortcut that you should always set up when you anticipate
needing a data set more than once or twice.
11. Using File > Disconnect Folder, remove the entry you just made. Then, restore it with the
Connect To Folder icon, which you will find on the Standard toolbar that is located under the
Main menu. The icon resembles the one associated with File > Connect Folder. Finally, make a
folder connection with the [___]IGIS-Arc folder itself.
13 Recall that [___] is the path designation of the data for this text. You determined it in Step 2 of Exercise 1-2.